Frank Patrick: Project Determinism
Frank Patrick: “In order to maintain some semblence of managing promises, which is the role of project management, prediction at the system level is necessary to assess the health of the project […]. That system is made up [...] of components that are tougher to predict in an individual pinpoint fashion, but can be judged sufficiently so that there is some level of confidence in their aggregate result. To make promises, all you need is a way of aggregating the local uncertainties into a reasonably certain global whole. To manage (and dare I say, control?) execution of the effort, short-term detailed predictions, developed when appropriate, of local completions can be used to develop a current view of the health of the promise, modifying priorities if necessary.”