Change Is Normal in Today's Product Development

In a webinar sponsored by Pure Insight on 27 November 2007, we asked 60+ product developers about their last development project:

As you can see, 98 percent of projects changed while they were underway with customer requirements, new technology, and project staffing changes being commonplace.

During the webinar, we discussed the technique of delaying decisions (making decisions at the last responsible moment, as covered in Chapter 7 of Flexible Product Development). Because this technique often contradicts managers' style of making decisions early, we asked attendees how their colleagues would regard them if they delayed a decision:

Although about a quarter of the participants would be applauded for delaying a decision, the remainder would receive less encouragement and a few would lose their jobs.

This is not the only behavior in flexible development that tends to contradict normal management style. This is why Flexible Product Development includes a comprehensive chapter on organizational change (Chapter 10).