Chapter 1: A Saturday Encounter

This past Saturday morning, just like the one before, Robert had dropped his wife off at her painting class. After ordering a "Flat White," he settled into a comfy chair at a nearby café. He pulled out his iPad and began reading a Bob Morane adventure, where the hero battles a nefarious organization led by an alluring Eurasian woman secretly in love with him—a true page-turner.

As he immersed himself in the hero's escapades, Robert heard someone call his name: "Hello, Robert! How are you?" It was Adrien, accompanied by Roland. Both men were in their thirties; Roland ran a tech startup, while Adrien was the head of a vibrant engineering firm focused on renewable energy.

Roland initiated the conversation: "I didn’t get in touch this week because my schedule was uncertain. Would you be free to meet with my team on Wednesday?" After a moment's thought, Robert replied, "Sure, Wednesday morning at your office."

Adrien chimed in, "Robert, we need your input to resolve a disagreement." "Oh? What's the issue?" Robert inquired.

Roland explained, "We’re debating the best way to measure project progress. My teams have adopted Scrum, which includes a daily stand-up to review our status and yesterday's progress. On the other hand, Adrien has a weekly formal meeting where each project manager reports on their project’s advancement. What do you think is the better approach?"

Robert leaned back in his chair, pondering for a few seconds before asking, "How do your teams respond to these meetings?"

Roland answered first: "They complain that these sessions take time away from actual productivity, but I need to know our progress." Adrien added, "My teams have nicknamed this meeting 'the grand mass' and feel it drags on unnecessarily. Yet, like Roland, I need to stay informed about each project."

Robert sought further clarification: "What project management methodology do you both use? How do you define progress in your projects?"

Roland responded first again: "We use Agile and Scrum, measuring progress by counting completed tasks against the total number of project tasks." Adrien supplemented, "We utilize the critical path method, measuring the completion percentage of each task against a contractual timeline."

Robert replied, "It's challenging to provide a single solution, but I believe we can arrive at a resolution."

Adrien and Roland appeared somewhat disappointed but remained silent.

"Roland, I know you enjoy pop music, and Adrien, you’re a jazz enthusiast. I assume you listen to music on your phones or computers?"

Adrien affirmed, "Of course." Roland added, "But what does this have to do with project progress?"

Robert continued, seemingly unfazed by the interruption: "You must appreciate Shannon's theorem, which allows for high-quality electronic music."

Adrien requested, "Could you remind us of that?"

"You know that sound is a vibrational pressure wave, which has a frequency. Music combines numerous vibrational waves of different frequencies. The human ear can detect sounds from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. That’s why digital music is sampled at 44.1 kHz. Shannon's theorem tells us that to accurately capture a signal, it must be sampled at least twice its highest frequency."

Roland responded, "So by sampling at 44.1 kHz, we can reproduce sounds up to 22.05 kHz, slightly above what the human ear can perceive."

Robert nodded in agreement. Adrien interjected, "What does this have to do with tracking project progress?"

"I'm getting there. Consider your projects as music—perhaps a Beethoven symphony. You want to fully understand the signal. How would you achieve that?"

Roland replied skeptically, "By sampling the signal at twice its frequency. But I still don’t see the connection."

"What would represent the frequency in a project?"

Adrien attempted an answer: "The tasks."

"More or less; that's a sufficient approximation for our discussion. And what would the highest frequency in a project be?"

Roland started to grasp Robert's point and responded, "The task with the shortest duration."

Robert confirmed, "Exactly. So, how can you sufficiently understand the progress of a project?"

Adrien suggested, "By measuring it at a frequency corresponding to half the duration of the shortest task in the project."

"Correct. If you measure more frequently, you won’t gain substantial information, and you may end up consuming excessive time from your teams, which could ultimately hinder the project. Ironically, the effort to measure progress could obstruct the very progress you wish to track."

Roland interjected, "In my case, it’s relatively straightforward. We break down our projects into tasks that fit within sprints. We assign about two tasks per engineer in a sprint, so tasks take about a week. Measuring progress on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays should suffice. Do you think we should cancel stand-ups on other days?"

"It depends on what you do during those meetings, but a quick round to identify any obstacles can foster collaboration and should be brief enough not to impede your engineers' work."

Adrien continued, "In my situation, I manage projects with much longer tasks and varying durations. Many of my tasks exceed a month. I think I’ll maintain the weekly rhythm already accepted by the teams, but we could make it asynchronous to eliminate the 'grand mass.' That should please everyone."

"That sounds like a solid plan. You could also work on a more detailed schedule where tasks last approximately two weeks. The level of detail in your plan should align with the project duration and the frequency of progress measurement. When you strike the right balance among these factors, your team will find its rhythm. No rule is absolute. You and your team should feel comfortable with the level of oversight you have on project progress without creating unnecessary workload. The primary goal remains that progress measurement serves as an effective alarm signal to detect project difficulties early enough. Remember, Shannon's theorem provides the minimum frequency for tracking a project, not the optimal one. Tracking too infrequently diminishes its alarm function, while tracking too frequently wastes your resources."

Once these new decisions are in place, you’ll need to consider how to implement the critical chain."

At that moment, Robert noticed his wife entering the coffee shop and searching for him. He concluded, "But that would take too long to explain today. I wish you both a wonderful weekend. Roland, see you Wednesday. Goodbye."

He stood up, put away his iPad, grabbed his bag, and left.

Chapter 2: The Importance of Measuring Progress