The End of PMD

What is PMD? Glad you asked. The first person who used the term PMD with me was the CIO at a client. PMD means pretty much done. In my business, you ask a programmer if some piece of software is finished. You’ll often hear “it’s pretty much done”. Then you ask “is it ready for testing” and you’ll get back “well, it’s not that done.” Then you ask, “Well, when will it be THAT done?” at which point they say, “I’ve got another 10% or so to go. Ask me in another week.” ARGH! our goal at Red Three is to eliminate PMD.

How can you eliminate PMD?

It’s not an easy thing. Technical projects have lots of pieces to them. It begins by dividing the work into as many little tasks so that you can check regularly and clearly that things are getting done. It requires having the right people, processes, and procedures. Most of all, it requires an ongoing dedication to continue to nailing things down every day.

We’ve been pretty good in the past at making sure that things get done. However, we’re growing quickly and I believe that ending PMD begins but doesn’t end with the CEO. Therefore, I’ve set my great team task to develop the right processes and procedures to insure that when we say something’s done, it’s really done. While I’m an advisor here, they clearly need to own the process as, more and more, they do all the actual work.

It’s clear to me that we’re not the only people interested in ending PMD so I’ll post updates as our process develops.

« Previous | Next »