Ask Slashdot: How Do You Deal With Priorities Inflation In IT Projects? 304
NetDanzr writes "I work for an IT company that has a steady stream of projects, new features to our existing products and technical support issues. As it is customary, though, our development resources are not sufficient to cover the amount of projects. As a result, our delivery dates are slipping, and as a result the average priority of projects is rising. Where the goal was to have only 10% of projects rated high, within a year nearly 50% of projects are rated as such. Our solution is to completely wipe out the project list once per year and start a new, properly prioritized list. How does your company deal with this inflation of priorities?"
We dont deal with it (Score:4, Funny)
we just all stress out and have 10000 tonnes of pressure 24/7/365
Re:We dont deal with it (Score:5, Funny)
Create more priorities (Score:5, Funny)
Obviously, you need more priorities. Nobody wants to mark his pet project as "low" priority, so you need to be creative. Ask marketing for help, and you'll end up with your new priorities: "High", "Very High", "Red", "Extreme", "Platinum", "Overclocked", "Done Yesterday", "Drop Everything", and "The Boss Is Watching".
Use the Scotty principal. (Score:5, Funny)
If you still have an American IT job in 2012.... (Score:3, Funny)
...then the policy is "The beatings will continue until productivity improves!"
Re:Don't let users score their own tasks (Score:4, Funny)
Re:We dont deal with it (Score:5, Funny)
Yes, I'm not familiar with the terminology in TFA, but I suspect it's the same situation where we're up against the wall with multiple systems down and a Sales laptop infected with a Croatian automailer and the VP comes and says:
"Stop. Just stop. I know you think you know where your priorities lie, but you're having difficulty seeing the big picture and you have a bad attitude from your inability to prioritize. So all of you come over here - I can't get this funny cat video to play on my iPad and it's crucial for this Sales presentation."
Re:By not having the situation in the first place (Score:5, Funny)
The true problem with agitating against Agile is that you may succeed, in which case it will be replaced with a new, shinier, and even more frustrating silver bullet. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know.
Play the game, use what's useful, assist others, produce your best, close your eyes and think of England.
Re:We dont deal with it (Score:3, Funny)