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Only management sufficiently divorced from reality can forget that "reality has a surprising amount of detail"

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital...

> suggests that half of all large IT projects—defined as those with initial price tags exceeding $15 million—massively blow their budgets. On average, large IT projects run 45 percent over budget and 7 percent over time, while delivering 56 percent less value than predicted. Software projects run the highest risk of cost and schedule overruns.

So, either this clearbit management magic makes all the normal scaling and estimation problems go away magically, or it is a really toxic management approach.



If you’re not sure you can deliver something, don’t commit to it. Instead, provide confidence levels, increase confidence by doing the riskiest bits earlier, and give frequent status updates.


> Instead, provide confidence levels, increase confidence by doing the riskiest bits earlier, and give frequent status updates.

Right--you're trying to choose the winning move: not to play. That's not really an option.


Effective management - both by the manager and the managed - is about avoiding such zero sum games. Look for the win-win and do your best to deliver it.


This is fine advice, but the topic is the "manager's handbook" not other, better, management practices, so the advice is off-topic.

Did you read the section in question?

Advice about avoiding zero sum games isn't relevant to a discussion of a specific zero sum game prescribed by the manual we're discussing.




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