La esencia de la efectividad

A la hora de explicar los principios de la efectividad, Covey nos recordaba la fábula de la gallina de los huevos de oro de Esopo: Un granjero descubre que una de sus gallinas ha puesto un huevo de oro. Al día siguiente pone otro, y así sucesivamente. En su afán de “producir más con menos”, al granjero le parece que lo más eficaz es matar la gallina y recoger todos los huevos de una vez, no de uno en uno. Pero al sacrificar la gallina, lo que hizo fue destruir la capacidad de producción. Claramente se equivocó: Lo que tenía que haber hecho era cuidarla y alimentarla. 

La esencia de la efectividad en los sistemas naturales se basa en equilibrar la producción (P = los huevos de oro)  y la capacidad de producción (CP = la gallina que pone los huevos de oro). Uno recoge lo que siembra. Es la ley de la cosecha.

El Teléfono

Releyendo estos días algunos textos de Tom DeMarco, me ha llamado la atención el capítulo 11 de Peopleware titulado “The Telephone”. Me ha parecido tan interesante que he decidido traducirlo y publicarlo aquí.

Recuerdan cuando Gila decía eso de: “¿Con el presidente de los Estados Unidos? Que se ponga.”¿Cuántas veces damos prioridad a una llamada telefónica antes que a la persona a la que estamos atendiendo? ¿Cuántas veces nos lo hacen a nosotros y nos parece normal? ¿Qué efecto tiene el teléfono en nuestra productividad personal?

Tom DeMarco y Tim Lister escribieron Peopleware en 1987. En el texto que viene a continuación, sustituyan la palabra teléfono por smartphone, skype, whatsapp, mensajería instantánea, etc., y verán cómo sigue vigente esta obra maestra de hace casi 30 años.

Exercise on Project Management Terminology

Exercise: Match these terms on the left with the definitions on the right.

1	Adaptive Life Cycle	A	An enterprise whose personnel are most directly involved in doing the work of the project or program.
2	Assumption	B	A project life cycle, also known as change-driven or agile methods, that is intended to facilitate change and require a high degree of ongoing stakeholder involvement. These project life cycles are also iterative and incremental, but iterations are very rapid (usually 2–4 weeks in length) and fixed in time and resources.
3	Constraint	C	Projects, programs, subportfolios, and operations managed as a group to achieve strategic objectives.
4	Enterprise Environmental Factors	D	Any organizational structure in which the project manager shares responsibility with the functional managers for assigning priorities and for directing the work of persons assigned to the project.
5	Functional Organization	E	The series of phases of a project from initiating to closing.
6	Progressive Elaboration	F	An artifact that is produced, is quantifiable, and can be either an end item in itself or a component item.
7	Iterative Life Cycle	G	A limiting factor that affects the execution of a project, program, portfolio, or process.
8	Life Cycle	H	A group of related projects, subprograms, and program activities managed in a coordinated way to obtain benefits not available from managing them individually.
9	Matrix Organization	I	Plans, processes, policies, procedures, and knowledge bases that are specific to and used by the performing organization.
10	Organizational Process Assets	J	A hierarchical organization where each employee has one clear superior, and staff are grouped by areas of specialization and managed by a person with expertise in that area.
11	Organizational Project Management Maturity	K	Conditions, not under the immediate control of the team, that influence, constrain, or direct the project, program, or portfolio.
12	Performing Organization	L	The level of an organization’s ability to deliver the desired strategic outcomes in a predictable, controllable, and reliable manner.
13	Portfolio	M	The iterative process of increasing the level of detail in a project management plan as greater amounts of information and more accurate estimates become available.
14	Product	N	A factor in the planning process that is considered to be true, real, or certain, without proof or demonstration.
15	Program	O	A project life cycle where the project scope is generally determined early in the project lifecycle, but time and cost estimates are routinely modified as the project team understanding of the product increases. Iterations develop the product through a series of repeated cycles, while increments successively add to the functionality of the product.