Have you ever sat down in one of those meetings where someone patronizingly draws a triangle on the whiteboard, writes Quality, Speed, Cost in the corners, and declares “Faster, Cheaper, Better… You can pick two!”? Yeah, we all hate that guy, right? Right. I have to confess I recently decided to be that guy and was told “Slogans are invoked to avoid thinking” by Bill Grosso, my boss (manager? leader? mentor? co-conspirator?) at Game Data Pros. That was reasonably fair. We proceeded to unpack the rest of the conversation we were having around engineering deliverables and I realized that there is actually a fourth element that most people do not talk about. In addition to examining the cost of development, the speed of development, and the quality of development, there is one more mutable axis for a project to consider.
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Internet, I hereby declare that the Triangle of Faster-Cheaper-Better has been upgraded. Instead of a triangle where you get two items, we are upgrading our shape and including one more choice for you. Yes, yes I know, your teams will totes adorbs this.
Today I present to you Szeder’s Quadrangle of Software Shippiness… I am claiming this fantastic law as novel and non-obvious. I have cited Bill above as an inspiration here, I should also add that I am not going to give him a slice of the voluminous royalties from becoming Internet Famous unless he joins me on the inevitable world tour.
When building your software, you may control the delivery (the Shippiness) of your software with four levers:
QUALITY
SPEED
COST
And the new addition:
SCOPE
Allow me to illustrate with this handy and informative technology drawing.
I will give you a moment to let this sink in… It hits different, doesn’t it? It is always important to realize that the idea of “product” itself is malleable when trying to figure out how to deliver high-quality products on time and under budget. You can always adjust the scope of the project itself.
You already know you can pick two from Faster, Cheaper, and Better, so why not add a fourth option of Smaller, and now you get to pick three!
Google reminds me that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry said ‘Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.’
I think this is an important lens to apply to your upcoming projects. If you are struggling to figure out how to fit all of your deliverables into your schedule and budget, maybe it is worth figuring out whether or not everything that you want to deliver is necessary. If not, maybe it is a moment of renegotiation with your product partners. Maybe the items you feel are not necessary, are necessary, and this will give someone the opportunity to explain their importance.
If nothing else, your shared understanding of what needs to be delivered will be higher, which always helps.
That is the entirety of the post today. I leave you with the poignant thought that this post is reduced to its smallest size possible in honor of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and the subject matter, and out of respect for your time.
Speaking of respect for your time, I recently saw this amazing programmable multicolored wall clock on Amazon and am shamelessly linking it to you for profit.
Do I own one? No. Will you click on it? Also probably no. Eventually, I will figure out Amazon Affiliate Marketing.
