Insights
Fresh thinking on flow, capacity and the economics of getting the right projects finished. Newest first.
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The Dependency Tax: Why Connecting Two Projects Costs More Than Either One
Read the piece: The Dependency Tax: Why Connecting Two Projects Costs More Than Either OneA dependency looks free because nobody books it. It costs you the last arrival, shared risk, and a queue that lives between two plans.
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The Watermelon Report: Why Your Status Dashboard Goes Green Until the Week It Goes Red
Read the piece: The Watermelon Report: Why Your Status Dashboard Goes Green Until the Week It Goes RedGreen for months, red three weeks out. Percent-complete cannot warn you, because it never measures the thing the plan protects.
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The Case for Smaller Projects: Why Batch Size Decides How Much Value You Capture
Read the piece: The Case for Smaller Projects: Why Batch Size Decides How Much Value You CaptureThe same scope as one project or as four. Batch size decides when value arrives, when problems surface, and how much risk you carry.
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Full Kit: Why the Best Time to Start a Project Is When It Can Actually Run
Read the piece: Full Kit: Why the Best Time to Start a Project Is When It Can Actually RunStarting a project before it can actually run costs more than starting it late, because a stalled start still holds the constraint.
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How to Find the One Resource That Sets Your Delivery Speed
Read the piece: How to Find the One Resource That Sets Your Delivery SpeedYour constraint is not your busiest team. Read the queues instead, and use the clone test to find the resource that sets your speed.
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Your Estimates Are Padded, and Your Projects Are Still Late
Read the piece: Your Estimates Are Padded, and Your Projects Are Still LateEveryone pads their estimates and the projects are still late. Where the safety goes, and why adding more of it cannot help.
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The Efficiency Paradox: Why Busy Teams and Waiting Work Go Together
Read the piece: The Efficiency Paradox: Why Busy Teams and Waiting Work Go TogetherWeeks of elapsed time, minutes of real work. Busy people and waiting work are the same condition, not opposite ones.
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The Utilization Trap: Why 100% Busy Is the Slowest Way to Run a Portfolio
Read the piece: The Utilization Trap: Why 100% Busy Is the Slowest Way to Run a PortfolioA road jams long before it is full, and so does a team. Why ninety-five percent busy is the slowest way to run a portfolio.
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Start Less to Finish More: The Case for a Portfolio Work-in-Progress Limit
Read the piece: Start Less to Finish More: The Case for a Portfolio Work-in-Progress LimitA portfolio where everything has started is not a portfolio in motion. It is a queue. The fix is a limit, not an exhortation.
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Stop Ranking Projects by How Big They Are
Read the piece: Stop Ranking Projects by How Big They AreRanking projects by size puts the biggest promise first. Ranking by return per constrained hour puts the most valuable first.