An Alternate Meaning for FOCKED
Eric Brechner came up with one of my favorite acronyms of all time in software development: FOCKED.
I want to add an alternate: Failure to Orchestrate Collective Knowledge Effectively for Delivery.
Successful delivery of software requires that different members of the team come together and understand the goals that have to be achieved and the priorities of those goals.
It’s as simple as communicating to the team on a regular basis (no more than once a week, but maybe at least once a month):
- where we are,
- where do we want to go,
- when do we have to get there,
- how are we getting there,
- who’s driving
It can make the whole process of delivery of software much less stressful and maybe more successful simply by aligning all of the stakeholders periodically.
Hey, maybe you learned this in some fancy MBA class or something, but I’m starting to appreciate — more and more — that the real secret to successful delivery of software is driving the successful collaboration and communication of people and alignment of all pieces to a strategy, vision, or goal. Having a bunch of smart, capable people doesn’t help you much if no one knows what’s going on.
