As Editors said: “Don’t tell me it’s easy to follow a process. There’s nothing harder than keeping a promise”. (They probably said it twice, as that seems to be what they do with most of their lyrics.)

After a hard week of planning – it’s that time of year – I need to get some process stuff out of my system. I heard another horror story last week around some web project or other (it shall remain nameless) that was almost 16 months in the planning, and then developed for 12 months or so.

At this point, you’ll be thinking “ah, he’s off on an agile rant”. Well, not quite – not in the process in any case, as those things are, after all, processes too.

It’s about mindset.

Methodologies are typically actions arising from a mindset: risk management, rapid action or whatever. My preferred mindset has been a combination of “cut the crap” (thanks Greg) and “continuous improvement” (thanks Portia).

The key question, then, for any process at any time is “What if I hadn’t just followed that process?” and then the action is to change on the basis of the answer.

I heard an interesting soundbite from a colleague who had spoken with a successful entrepreneur at an event and he’d said (I’m paraphrasing): “I’d love to be an entrepreneur, but I don’t like the risk associated with it – I have a family, mortgage etc.”.  To which the entrepreneur replied: “I think the idea of a stable job and income is more risky.”

Done. I feel better already.