{"id":712,"date":"2008-09-23T13:25:33","date_gmt":"2008-09-23T17:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/?p=712"},"modified":"2016-05-26T15:54:12","modified_gmt":"2016-05-26T22:54:12","slug":"left-shifting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/?p=712","title":{"rendered":"Left shifting"},"content":{"rendered":"

The following entry is a part of the Pattern Library<\/a>. The Pattern Library records the common patterns of events that have the potential to lead to project failure<\/p>\n

\n

Name : Left shifting<\/strong>
\nScope : <\/strong>Event pattern (sets pattern of events for complete project)<\/p>\n

In brief :
\n<\/strong>Key strategic, architectural and organizational decisions are ignored in favour of diving into the hard core development activities.<\/p>\n

Description\u00a0:<\/strong>
\nSome project decisions are more significant than others.\u00a0\u00a0A decision’s relative significance can be thought of\u00a0in terms of its ‘sphere of influence’ (i.e how many other project decisions will be influenced by or based upon that decision).<\/p>\n

The sphere of influence a decision has can\u00a0be plotted\u00a0as a horizontal line.\u00a0 On the left side\u00a0are those decisions\u00a0affecting only\u00a0one small part of the system (such as the wording to be used for a specific error message), on the\u00a0right are the decisions\u00a0affecting the complete project (such as the project\u2019s goals).\u00a0 All decisions made in a project fall somewhere along that line.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0decisions at either end of the line have different characteristics.\u00a0 Right side decisions are typically the “big picture”<\/em> decisions such as\u00a0business goals, critical success factors and architectural decisions.\u00a0 Left side decisions are\u00a0very detailed and usually focus on\u00a0the system’s physical implementation.<\/p>\n

Left shifting occurs when the team downplays the strategic right side decisions in favour of focusing on the detailed, implementation oriented, left side decisions.\u00a0 The failure to address right side decisions results in\u00a0flawed implementations that\u00a0singificant reduce the value the system brings.<\/p>\n

Typical sequence of events :<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. A project is initiated<\/li>\n
  2. Key strategic, business, organizational and architectural decisions are skipped or downplayed<\/li>\n
  3. Team\u00a0rapidly moves into the development of individual functions<\/li>\n
  4. Illusion of progress is created as functions are developed<\/li>\n
  5. Affect of missing right side decisions\u00a0shows through in later stages of the project (failure to meet performance goals, solution poorly aligned with business needs, etc)<\/li>\n
  6. Team takes on significant levels of rework to try to address the problems<\/li>\n
  7. Major delays and budget overruns incurred as effect of rework takes hold.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Negative effects :<\/strong><\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Failure to align the project with the business goals<\/li>\n
    2. Failure to establish non-functional requirements (quality attributes)<\/li>\n
    3. Poor architectures which result in\n
        \n
      1. More code being developed than was really needed<\/li>\n
      2. Poor system performance<\/li>\n
      3. Slow development of functions built in the later stages of the project<\/li>\n
      4. Significant future maintenance costs<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/li>\n
      5. Reduced productivity due to a failure to organize effectively<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

        Common Root Causes :<\/strong><\/p>\n

          \n
        1. Lack of effective leadership<\/li>\n
        2. The perception that cutting code is the only measure of progress<\/li>\n
        3. Gravitation<\/span><\/a> (hard core technical focus draws team into what they perceive as the concrete work of developing code)<\/li>\n
        4. Schedule pressure<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

          Suggested Actions :<\/strong><\/p>\n

            \n
          1. Establish effective leadership that has the experience to understand the dangers of left shifting<\/li>\n
          2. Establish clear ownership of right side strategic decisions and elevate the formality of making them<\/li>\n
          3. Fight for time to conduct an initiation phase in which right side strategic decisions are clearly address<\/li>\n
          4. Conduct stakeholder workshops at the start of the project to ensure key right side decisions are openly discussed<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

            The following entry is a part of the Pattern Library. The Pattern Library records the common patterns of events that have the potential to lead to project failure Name : Left shifting Scope : Event pattern (sets pattern of events for complete project) In brief : Key strategic, architectural and organizational decisions are ignored in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11,8],"tags":[136],"class_list":["post-712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-macro-pattern","category-focal-imbalance","category-pattern","tag-pattern"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=712"}],"version-history":[{"count":90,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8275,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/712\/revisions\/8275"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=712"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=712"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleam.com\/WTPF\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=712"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}