The Map Is Not The Terrain

The perils of paper shredding...

I’ve been thinking about the flow of work in technology teams after seeing Ryan Singer talk about the perils of paper shredding.

Ryan works at Basecamp. I followed him on Twitter after they released his free book Shape Up.

Paper shredding is when you take a new project or initiative and slice it into tasks before giving it to a person/team.

The big problem we’ve all faced is we don't know what ALL the tasks actually are until AFTER starting the real work!

It’s fine to think a project will have roughly 5 parts and they’ll likely happen in a certain order. BUT... the map is not the terrain! (Especially in technology projects)

Ryan explains how projects that are split into tasks up front by a paper shredder are often full of imagined tasks and brittle plans.

“If you split a project into pieces at the start, the people making it aren't responsible for the WHOLE. If nobody is working on the WHOLE, there will be defects. Missing pieces.“

So I’m really leaning into the idea of giving my teams WHOLE projects instead of tasks. Give them big picture direction and clear boundaries.

I’m trying to make sure JIRA does not become a paper shredder and that our people have a mandate to define & discover their own tasks.

Ryan’s book: basecamp.com/shapeup