For years I used to ask people how much work had they completed. Without any rigour around this question it is relatively useless as the person you’re talking to really believes that you are asking for a 'best guess' and that’s what they give you.
Testers will tell you the actual % complete, everyone else will give a 'guesstimate'.
Endless frustration ensues as you continuously get ‘surprised’ that low and behold things have taken a lot longer to complete than first thought.
Reading the 1996 book ‘Dynamics of Software Development’ by Jim McCarthy a light bulb suddenly went on for me. He recommended that if you want to know how much work is completed, ask the testers, NOT the developers.
- Developers (and people in general) tend to be optimistic and over estimate what they have done, who good it is in terms of quality and how quickly they can complete the rest
- The tester will tell you what has passed testing and if it is up to scratch and works (i.e.: the quality is known)
So, now I ignore 'guesstimates' of % complete and go straight to 'test results'.
Outside of software development a 'test result' looks like;
- setup to succeed - aviation – both the pilot and co-pilot conduct pre flight checklist
- continuity preventing transcription errors - painter – quote becomes work order becomes checklist
- check against what was agreed - coffee shop – repeat order back to customer
- check before delivery - restaurant – chef tastes the food
- capture errors early - building job – architect does site visits to check against drawings during the build (as soon as set out is done, before walls are completed)
You will never have any control of your operation if you don't know for sure that standards are being met.
If you can involve a third party in the process, have them inspect and check work and report back to you, it will;
- save you having to check yourself
- show you still care about standards
- ensure your team make an effort to get it right first time as they know they will be checked
- save time and money redoing poor workmanship
- prevent mishaps getting through to the customer
- highlight unavoidable discrepancies early to manage customer expectations
A check of standards doesn’t have to cost you a lot but is necessary if you really want to make yourself redundant.