Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Riding a dead horse?



The code of tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. In the [project office], we often try other strategies with dead horses, including the following:
  • Buying a stronger whip;
  • Changing riders;
  • Saying things like ‘this is the way we’ve always ridden the horse;
  • Appointing a committee to study the horse;
  • Arranging a visit to other [PMOs] to see how they ride dead horses;
  • Increasing the standards to ride dead horses;
  • Declaring the horse is better, faster, cheaper dead; and finally 
  • Harnessing the dead horses together for increased speed 
Thomas Penfield Jackson

I was recently shown this by Alex Walton, principal at 3PMLLC.com, a statement by U.S. District Court judge Jackson, while managing the Microsoft case in 1999. I've edited it with [ ] to apply it to project management.

I'm not sure that Jackson was a happy camper when he said this; a good deal of his ruling in the Microsoft case was reversed on appeal.



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