This post originated from an RSS feed registered with Agile Buzz by Keith Ray. Original Post: Death March Response Feed Title: MemoRanda Feed URL: http://homepage.mac.com/1/homepage404ErrorPage.html Feed Description: Keith Ray's notes to be remembered on agile software development, project management, oo programming, and other topics. Latest Agile Buzz Posts Latest Agile Buzz Posts by Keith Ray Latest Posts From MemoRanda

In email, James Bullock commented on my Death March post, saying, among other things:

Interesting, succinct observation that [Death March projects] aren't the critical ones. I have tended to go at this observation from a different POV. I called it "getting serious." A "death march" project isn't properly staffed, scoped, or run to give a high probability of success - per the avowed goals. So either we're blind, or dumb, or these aren't the actual goals.

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The thing is, for projects that really are important, somebody gets serious eventually. Until them, whatever is going on is mostly nonsense. So, I look for that getting serious event, and test it operationally out in the world. What are they willing to consider? To do? What skin are they willing to put in the game personally?

[...]

Thanks for the post. Once again, you have given me to think.