Planning

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Whether it comes naturally or is the result of a concerted effort and process, every system plans to achieve the same benefits:

• Focus on the right priorities.
• Clear Ownership.
• Coordination.
• High shipping velocity.

The goal of planning is to get to a unified and realistic plan for what the system is collectively working towards over a given time horizon. It is not a one-time event, but a continuous process that happens at different levels of granularity.

To help with planning, you should have these things:

• Long-term Vision Statement. Where are you going?
• Roadmap. A unified view of what the team is working towards shipping.
• List of options.

No matter what the final plan is, document it and you’ll have a log of all the plans to reflect back on.

Speed is important. You can build / do things quickly.

1. Make an outline of the project. Plan to build something as quickly as possible and modify it as needed in the future.
2. For each item in the outline, make an outline. Do this recursively until the items are small.
3. Fill in/do each item as fast as possible. Do not perfect/iterate them as you go. Doing it badly is doing the thing.
4. Finally, once completely done, go back and perfect.