“When Will It Be Done” by Daniel Vacanti
We bet that everyone at least once in his or her life was asked: When will it be done? It is a simple question with (almost always) a magical answer. Probably some of you struggled with the answer or didn’t feel comfortable with the given forecast. The new book by Daniel Vacanti brings a lot of ideas on how to forecast and make our future more predictable.
➡️In this episode, Justyna and Paul talk about Danial Vacanti’s new book, When Will It Be Done. Plus a little rant about math.
In the second part of this podcast, our hosts have prepared a list of questions for the author. Daniel joins them with answers and some insights about the book.
About the book
If you have ever been asked “When Will It Be Done?” (WWIBD) then you have been asked to make a forecast. My guess is that when you were asked that question, you struggled mightily to answer it. You struggled because there are so many possible things that could go wrong (and go right) when trying to forecast the completion date an item. I am even going to guess that whatever prediction you made ended up being wrong. The fact that you were wrong was not because you were incompetent or because you did not try hard enough. You were wrong because we think about forecasts incorrectly. This book clear up that confusion and will give you all the tools you need in order to make accurate forecasts. Your customers demand predictability from you and you demand predictability from your teams. Isn’t it time you started to deliver on your promises?
About the Author
Daniel Vacanti has spent most of the last 20 years focusing on Lean and Agile practices. In 2007, he helped to develop the Kanban Method for knowledge work. He managed the world’s first project implementation of Kanban that year, and has been conducting Kanban training, coaching, and consulting ever since. In 2011 he founded Corporate Kanban, Inc., which provides world-class Lean training and consulting to clients all over the globe—including several Fortune 100 companies. In 2013 he founded ActionableAgileTM which provides industry leading predictive analytics tools and services to any flow-based process. Daniel holds a Masters in Business Administration and regularly teaches a class on lean principles for software management at the University of California Berkeley.
Other books from Daniel Vacanti
Other useful content:
A short article about that S-curve effect that Paul mentioned:
Dark matter, failure demand and S-Curve – project planning with Little’s Law and adding a project buffer to anticipate risks
