No matter how good a plan is at the beginning of the day, it will not survive a confrontation with reality. This template turns the fight against deviations into a game:

• Detect and confront uncertainties
• Prioritize by urgency and relevance
• Celebrate fulfilling promises

Inspired by the Eisenhower Matrix but focusing on the pre- and post-decision phases and then especially on uncertainties and completion.

Learning to fulfill promises to yourself and others is better than becoming the hero who parachutes in and saves the day.

Example:

It is all too easy to rush ahead without thinking. This template is intended for the initial design of a task.

When and why?

• Deadline?
• Intended impact?
• Consequences if not done?
• How to follow up?

What should be done?

• Major constraints on the solution?
• What fruits to be harvested when?

How should it be done?

• How to break it down?
• Major risks with the solution idea?

Executive summary

• How to explain this to someone else?
• When will we know we are done?

Do not dive into details. There are other tools like formal FMEA and IDEF0 when the time is right.

So you have defined the needs to be met with a project or task?
What about defining the solution space?

This template is inspired by IDEF0 context diagrams but has a more lightweight approach to full IDEF0:

• What is the purpose of the model? (*)
• The point of view from which to understand it? (*)
• What rules should be respected? (*)
• What outputs should be produced? (*)
• What resources are to be received?
• What tools and skills will be required?
• Which process to call (share with) if things go wrong?

Once you and your stakeholders understand the necessary (clearly justified) constraints, you can start removing unnecessary constraints and allow yourself and your team to focus on what matters.

Disasters are easier to deal with if you mentally prepare (a little) for the worst.

Many disasters can be prevented while some risks are not worth spending time on.

This template is inspired by the formal risk analysis method FMEA but focuses on one function at a time:

• What is the function, that will fail?
• How will it break down?
• What bad things can happen when it breaks?
• What could be the root cause of its failure?
• Would we detect early indicators of the disaster?
• What should we do about the risk, if anything?

You want to do Retrospectives but it's not working?

No one seems engaged, not even you? Or the meetings are about trivialities that should already have been dealt with in the daily work? You feel something is amiss, but it is not tangible?

The main purpose of a Retro (or whatever you call them in your organization) is to give yourself a short break from the daily work to reflect on what you are doing. And not doing.

It's about discovering the waste that no one has even thought about, or had the energy or courage to bring to the team's attention, with deadlines and stakeholders breathing down everyone's neck.

Peter Drucker claimed that "culture eats strategy for breakfast". That is probably true. But in my opinion, an ineffective culture first and foremost destroys the tactical work that gets things done in the first place.

So if Retros isn't your thing (yet), I suggest you adopt an approach that makes continuous improvement and learning about knowledge gaps first-class citizens in your ways-of-working. If successful, Retros might eventually follow suit.

If I had a nickel for every time someone, including myself, has justified one method over another by saying that the proposed method would be "more agile" and "less waterfall" than the other, but not really thought it through...

• Of course you need processes and tools.
• Of course you sometimes need extensive documentation.
• Of course you may need to negotiate contracts.
• Of course you need to plan.

The agile manifesto says no different (and I couldn't care less what "SAFe" and the like say). Use common sense. As a manager once (jokingly) said in a situation: "You don't have to be stupid on purpose".

Use whatever tool works for you when common sense isn't there, due to stress or fatigue or just good old-fashioned stupidity, to remind yourself of what's really important.

With a non-trivial task, the Explore template is my tool to reduce the risk of being stupid on purpose. It reminds me of the importance of making conscious choices when it comes to the balance between learning something new and trying it out, so that the overall work can progress towards intended goal.