Slowing Down – Getting There is About Requirements

In my last installment on slowing down, I laid out these steps to managing a successful project.

Gather Requirements
Design
Develop
Test
Deploy
Maintenance

Don’t worry, I’m not going to spend a lot of time on this planning bit. Remember, I’m slowing down. But I find that staying on track requires that we stop, settle, take stock of where we are, then consciously move forward.  Knowing where you want to be, helps quite a bit. Taking stock is about pulling together a set of requirements.

Requirements, Requirements, Requirements

The value of requirements are discovered in retrospect. When you look back at disastrous decisions or failed plans, you’ll often find that you moved too far from where you wanted to be. This can happen because of compromise, costs, or the lack of options to meet your goals. Whatever the reason, if you’re not happy with the outcome it’s usually because you didn’t meet your requirements.

Success comes from knowing what direction you want to move towards, discovering whether it’s achievable, and of course, getting started.  You should periodically reflect on your progress by looking back at the “requirements”. Checking against your goals gives you the resolve to stick to your guns, as well as the courage to bail if it’s failing. Finishing a project is not the goal.  Meeting your requirements is the goal.

Gathering requirements is not simple.  There’s the soul searching.  You need to be realistic, but at the same time reach for where you need to be.

Taking Stock

Soul searching –  For me, this is where process began from here. I was spread too thin.  I wasn’t living up to my own advice to be present.  Present for my family, for my wife, to life at home.
Analyzing where I’m at – I did a basic inventory of how I spend my time. Life projects are about choosing how to spend your time. Finding out how you spend it now is helpful.  I’ll go into detail on this shortly.
Writing good requirements – they should follow these pointers

One thing at a time – don’t combine things into one requirement – e.g. I will write a book and be healthier.  those are 2 different things that will require different paths to success.
Don’t describe how, just what the outcome should be. Design comes later. Don’t decide that you’re going to loose weight by eating only carrots. It may turn out that you’ll do it some other way; like walking more, or increasing the protein in your diet.
They should be measurable – otherwise you can’t tell if you’ve succeeded. – e.g. I want to be happy. Does that mean I need to be happy all the time? more often? What do you mean by happy?



Where Am I Now?

The soul searching is done. So, the analysis of where I’m at now is next. Here’s a high level break out of how I spend my time (NOTE: these kinds of assessments are notoriously inaccurate, but you’ve got to start somewhere)

Activity
Hours per week


Work
60 hours


My Business
4 hours


Meditation Group
2 hours


Church
1 hour


Writing
21 hours


Errands
7 hours


Social Media
25 hours


Photography
3 hours




Putting the Requirements to Paper

So these are my requirements. Here’s what I want to set out to accomplish

Spend more time with my family
Continue to Meditate
Write more and better
Be healthier
Do Waterfall chasing and photography
Make room for all of this by reducing time spent doing other things

My next step is the design which we’ll talk about next time.

A short series on slowing down.  I'll be sharing some of the things I've been doing to pare my life down so I can focus on the things that I think are impoirtant.

Slowing Down - Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.  - Benjamin Franklin

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The post Slowing Down – Getting There is About Requirements written by Andrew Furst appeared on Andrew Furst.