Thank you. I’m glad you like the material.

While I can’t comment on the project schedule that they may have had for the Telethon, I do believe project schedules can be simpler when you measure and track physical progress to assess status.

The reason for this is that the WBS is often decomposed into many short deliverables for the sole benefit of assessing progress, but when you measure physical progress, you don’t have the need to decompose to this level to assess progress.

Consequently, this is more empowering to the programmer assigned to code the functionality as they are free to code the implementation in the order that they see fit rather than building components in a sequence to comply to a schedule.

great post. I really enjoy reading your writing. I think you hit on another point that you didn’t mention, simplicity. Jerry didn’t need a 10-page project schedule to achieve his goal. One surely could have been made and PMBOK/PRINCE2 devotees would surely claim that detailed plans would be required to reach lofty goals, but they would be wrong.

Jerry kept it simple, he evaluated situations and could make quick adjustments and it gave him tremendous flexibility.

Less is more. If the goal is lofty, simpler plans increase everyone’s chances of success.

Thanks for a great post,

Andy