Pinball Wizard

Michael Aucoin, D. Engr., PE, PMP is president of Leading Edge Management, LLC in College Station, Texas and author of Right-Brain Project Management: A Complementary Approach. He can be reached at [email protected].

  Agile  

Aficionados of classic rock will recognize the title of this column, coming from The Who’s rock opera Tommy. Their album chronicles the story of a fictional “deaf, dumb and blind kid”, rendered that way by a traumatic childhood. Tommy develops astounding skill at playing pinball and becomes the champion, puzzling competitors because he “plays by intuition.”

On an agile project, to a certain degree we all operate as the “deaf, dumb and blind kid.” We encounter situations that are unfamiliar and ambiguous, and we must overcome forces that defy control. We need a way to see through the fog and operate with mastery for our project decisions. An important tool for the agile master is to play by intuition.

I can hear the scoff: “Intuition? The idea is laughable. We’re supposed to make project decisions rationally with hard data, Monte Carlo simulations and earned value analysis. What’s next, flipping a coin?” Well, yes… we will come back to the coin flip in just a minute.

While they will strenuously deny it in public, many expert project leaders will privately say in hushed tones that they rely heavily upon intuition in assessing situations and making decisions. They recognize the unmatched power of intuition for making sense of ambiguity and conflicting information. When one has plenty of hard …

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