I recently took my family on a vacation that required us to drive several hours to a place we had never been. Instead of reaching for my worn road atlas or even using an online trip planner, I decided to rely totally on my GPS. As I prepared to pull out of the driveway, I plugged in my destination and in seconds was informed of how many miles I had in front of me and my estimated time of arrival.
As we rode along, what caught my interest is that each time we exited the interstate for food, etc., the automated voice would announce "Re-routing". Then, after getting back in the car to resume our journey, we'd be given instructions to get us back on track, and the information in the GPS would be updated to reflect the distance remaining and the new (now later) ETA.
I thought, "Wow -- talk about inspecting and adapting". The GPS was constantly comparing my progress to what I had told it I wanted to do, and letting me know how I was doing in terms of distance and time. Any time I did something that deviated from the path that would take me to my destination, it assessed the situation, told me what I needed to do to get back on track, and let me know, matter-of-factly, that based on my rate of progress, my ETA was being pushed further out. It even informed me of traffic obstructions and asked if I wanted to route around them.
On the day we were to start our drive home, I was informed by one of my teenaged “stakeholders” that he HAD to get back that night because he had a day trip planned with his buddies the next day. I had not planned on going all the way home in one night, and I could have played the “you should have told me this while we were planning the trip” card, but I decided to do what I could to get home by 2:00 AM, with the caveat that I would see where we were at 1:00 AM and make the call then. In order for us to make it the required distance in the time allotted, I would have to drink lots of caffeine and drive way too fast. By about 12:30 AM, it became clear that we would not reach our destination on time.
I had a decision to make, then: I could either plod on home, but get there very late and exhausted, or go as far as I could by 2:00 AM. I decided that we had made significant progress and that I only needed to find some place safe for my family to spend the rest of the night. So I reduced the scope of the distance I would cover to that which was feasible given the rate at which I could realistically and safely travel and the time limit I had established. Although one particular stakeholder in the back seat was not at all happy that we would not make it home in time for his trip, it was clear that his requirement was optional and of relatively low priority and that pushing on through the night would create a safety risk that we did not need to take. We found a nice hotel, were in bed by 2:00 AM, and drove the rest of the way home the next day well-rested.
I’ve made similar trips with paper map in one hand and military-grade coffee in the other, and pushed through, taking it one mile marker at a time. What usually happened in those cases is that, with destination and time frame in mind, I overestimated my ability to stay alert, drove myself to exhaustion, and even then still didn’t reach the destination on time. To make matters worse, a couple of those times I’ve found myself out of options, with no place to sleep, and nowhere to get the next cup of mud except some seedy truck stop called “Lulu’s”. The difference this trip was that I was constantly made aware of exactly where I was, how far I had to go, and what my true capabilities were. That information enabled me to make the best decision, all things considered, while there was still time to make such a decision.
I won’t go into a patronizing comparison between paper maps and linear plans or mile markers and milestones, but this trip guided solely by a real-time “information radiator” was full of obvious parallels to my work in agile software delivery. I’m also happy to report that although my son did not make his trip with his buddies, they made up for it by all going to a movie a couple of nights later.
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