Falling into the Pit of Succes

Climbing mountains is hard.

I've never done it, and I don't plan on it, but I've been told this by people I know and experienced it vicariously through books. I know, very well, I won't climb a mountain.

So, why is it so inspiring to describe business success as climbing a mountain? Or going up in any way? I mean, this means we are fighting gravity, and this is generating extra work upon our current workload. Double work.

Even I use this analogy, including in my book Patterns of Software Construction, with the idea of moving through evolutions to climb toward success. The evolutions are critical to making progress, and my default in that book was going up. But what about an alternative approach to climbing. It's easier to go down. How about falling into a pit?

Sure, falling into a pit sounds dangerous. But it doesn't have to be. What if we made the pit comfortable. Spacious. Warm and cozy, or cool and clean - your preference, your choice. Imagine that the pit was something we are going to fall into one way or another because it's in front of us. So we want to fall into a pit that helps us. Some call this the Pit of Success - and I'm game to stick with it. I'm not an inventor. I'm more like a collector.

I take the great ideas and try to amplify them for the benefit of everyone - because there are so many great concepts that don't get applied. I've simply learned that no one wants to be preached to. People want honesty. And, I'm not a full-time creator or inventor. I'm a collector. The person you go to with brownfield, toxic, hard projects and not the "stealth mode" brand new idea. Others love shiny, so they can have at it. It's good to know who you are.

So, how do you apply this?

First, stop thinking about the sweat effort of climbing. Stop fighting gravity - you won't win, and if you do, it's temporary from hustle, caffeine, adrenaline, or luck e.g., hard work. That's how rockets work. Everyday, in everyway, we are faced with gravity pulling us down and friction in the things we want to do. Why keep fighting it?

Instead, name all the activities required to help you succeed. This concept can be for anything in life, but we'll stick to software here. Here are some (not all) things required for success in this game.

1. A Plan (a ha!)
2. Success Criteria (know you're winning)
3. Standard Operating Procedures (build the wheel once)
4. A method to document (reduce confusion)
5. Consistent, heavily automated testing (let the machines dothe work)
6. Defensive coding techniques (massively prevent production defects)
7. An operational strategy (the world past your SDLC)
8. A mechanism to measure and asses (trending up, down, flat, etc.)

There are always more activities to add - and this is plenty to digest for now. Do you have these activities in place when you start a project so that you simply fall into it without effort? Be honest. Or do you have a vague idea, a sprint planning meeting, and then "weeeeeeee" here we go!

In Summary

Finding a pit. Filling it with the things that you know will make you succeed. And then walking into that pit is a hundred times easier than fighting a new battle every day.