The Four Steps of Complex Tasks (Part I)

In software development, we often face complex tasks that need to be addressed with nearly certain success rates. “Failure is not an option” is an easy sentence to say, but hard to implement. As experienced software developers, we’ve learnt our share from failures or near-misses and have probably derived an implicit problem-solving framework for our typical tasks. But what if the tasks are not so typical? What if we need to do complex work where we lack experience – and know it?

Adopting a problem-solving framework

In order to keep this blog entry as practical as possible, lets tell the theory with the help of an example that will be foreign to most software developers: You need to participate in a call for proposals for a big software project. You are responsible for the complete process from downloading and reading all documents for the call for proposals, making sense of the requirements, making a plan and an estimate, writing everything up and delivering your proposal in time and form at the right address. You cannot rely on the help of more experienced colleagues. You will probably feel overwhelmed and a bit helpless.

Now is the time to look for proven problem-solving frameworks that will at least help you coordinate your work and remind you about necessary steps that might go by the board otherwise. There are probably numerous frameworks out there, but I’ve found one to be easily applicable and reliable in the outcome. It’s the four steps of warfare. “Warfare” is a heavy word that isn’t in the dictionary of most people. It really means “to wage war” on somebody or something. But it doesn’t imply death, injury or even a “loser”. If you can wrap your head around the following sentence, we can easily forget its ancestry and follow the steps without any bloodshed: We are about to wage war on the call for proposals.

Being on a mission

We are now on a mission! Every mission starts with the most important piece of information: The mission statement. In this statement, the primary goals of the mission need to be declared as clear and unambiguous as possible. In our example, the mission statement might read like “I want to deliver a complete, believable and feasible proposal for the software project while adhering to all formalities”. It is worthwhile to write the mission statement down and keep it visible. This is your goal, this is why you wage war. Anything you do during the mission that doesn’t help you further your case in regard to the mission statement can be called a distraction (or in agile speak: “waste”).

Analyzing our example’s mission statement, we can conclude that we have two fields of work to cover: the content of the proposal and the formalities of the call. Both need to be covered successfully in order to achieve mission success. It is not enough to have a formidable proposal but send it in too late or without certain required characteristics. And it doesn’t do good to send something awful in that fulfills all technical requirements of the proposal but stands no chance because of its content. You’ve just discovered that your war will be fought on two fronts (content and formalities) and neglecting either one of them will not result in victory. That is an important discovery for the moment you employ your “troops” – time, attention, effort and material in our case.

The four steps

But slow down! We are far away from employing our troops! We first need to learn about the four steps of warfare. With our mission statement at hand, we have to make a plan for these steps:

• Reconnaissance
• Maneuver
• Offensive
• Defensive

Nearly every military mission can be broken down into these four steps in that order. We cover the first step in this blog post and the following three in the second part next week:

Step one: Reconnaissance

Every warfare mission has important things at stake. There would be no mission otherwise, because each mission is expensive. With something big at stake, you want to reduce risk as much as possible. The military way to reduce risk is to gather knowledge about the enemy, to “increase intelligence”. Our “enemy” is the call for proposals with its deadline and rules and requirements. It is an easy enemy in a way, because all information is already made available in clear form and will not change over time. Or is it? Our first move should be to gather and revise all documents that tell us something about the call for proposals. Are we in possession of all available information? Nothing will break our neck more effectively than forgetting to read all documents. The sentence “I didn’t know that!” might sound like a good explanation why the mission failed, but it only indicates that you already failed in the reconnaissance step. Everything you do after a botched reconnaissance has a high risk of being ineffective, useless or downright counter-productive. You need to be sure to survey the complete terrain (read all the documents). A general that says “we don’t need to look behind this mountain, there will be nothing behind it” is in danger of failure as sure as you are if you say “that’s probably all information there is, what else should one want from me?”. Don’t underestimate your enemy! Just because you can download and read everything in regard to your call of proposals doesn’t mean it can be found at one place or will be conveniently available. Double-check that you’ve followed each hint about additional rules (like in general terms and conditions). Read all documents carefully!

When you’ve gathered a complete map of the terrain (have all rules and requirements in readable form), it’s time to mark the problematic features. Make a list of all formalities you need to adhere to. This list is already part of your battle plan. You will later need to employ resources to check off each point of this list. Mark all requirements that you find problematic or surprising. Those are like the strongholds on a battlefield. They need extra attention from you later on. Take your list of simple tasks and tack it on your mission board. If you didn’t have one yet, you’ll have it now. The mission board will look exactly like in the movies when you complete your first step. On top goes the mission statement, with your task list in whatever fashion suits you beneath it (some prefer the ordered list, some might draw a graph, whatever works for you). The mission board is for you and you only, nobody else needs to understand it. You’ve just created your headquarter! Now you have all ingredients to assemble your troops on the battlefield: you know the terrain, where the enemy resides, where you are and what your mission is.

Now is the time to get moving – in part two of this blog entry series next week. Stay tuned!