Jason from 37signals tells us a nice anecdote comparing organization of software companies to tools used by prisoners to escape from a jail. They use a spoon, as a subtle alternative for a brute force jackhammer. Using the spoon to break out from the jail takes more time, but you can easily adjust your process to be more successful. On the other hand with the jackhammer you have a single chance and if you happen to fail, the failure will be really loud – no chance to adjust anything.
Nice comparison, although a bit exaggerated for me. Having more resources doesn’t have to mean that you should use thousands of spoons. Another thing is that your choice isn’t limited to the spoon and the jackhammer – there’s a wide variety of tools. Exactly the same situation is with companies – they aren’t limited to big, fat, slow bur very rich (the jackhammer) and small, flexible, with limited resources but great teams (the spoon) only.
I think guys from 37singals are in situation comfortable enough, they can spend their time digging with the spoon. They don’t feel an urge to break out. If they needed to be out of there within a day they’d probably have chosen another tool. If there were any choice anyway.
To keep in the climate of the Jason’s story my tool is a knife. A bit better than the spoon, although you can find it in exactly the same drawer in the kitchen. We have a great team, yet we still running out of time trying (too?) hard to catch the budget. Sometimes I feel like I had a toothpick instead.
How about you?
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