Guessing is not a strategy: How to build decision velocity with AI and real-time data
June 10, 2026 | Live Webinar
The Three Keys
We all have heard that people are the key to success, but how quickly we forget it! Instead, we put our effort into working on process, procedures, organizational changes and tools to improve the performance of our projects.
Why People Are Number One
The manifesto for agile software development (agilemanifesto.org) says: “Individuals and interactions over processes and tools.” And moreover, this the first of four such comparisons that comprise the manifesto. Project managers who rely on fast iteration to make progress under turbulent conditions know from experience that nothing matters more than motivated, seasoned people.
Those of us who prefer to be convinced instead by hard data can look at the broad base of data collected by Barry Boehm for his COCOMO model (a model for calculating the time and effort needed to build a given piece of software). After surveying over a hundred projects, Boehm identified 22 factors that affect project time and effort. I have lumped these factors into seven categories. The most influential by far is the people category, which can affect time and effort over a range of 33 to one (for instance, the cost of a project can range from $100,000 to $3.3 million depending on the people working on it).
The next most influential category is the factors related to the product being developed, with a range of 10 to …
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Very funny, Scotty. Now beam down my clothes. |