"The method made sense, on paper"

After a few rough experiences estimating and shaping work, I did what I always do when I feel out of my depth, I hit the books.

I read Architecture for Developers by Simon Brown, Implementing Domain Driven Design by Vaughn Vernon, Building Microservices by Sam Newman, User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton. I read every blog post I could find on Event Storming.

And honestly, it helped.
I started facilitating better conversations.
I asked clearer questions.
The work we shaped felt closer to what we actually delivered.

But even then, even when I was doing everything “right”, the path to shared understanding was still windy. Estimates still changed. Priorities still shifted. People still heard different things in the same meeting.

Worst of all, we'd still discover bad assumptions or missed conversations late into the project. Here I was, trying to avoid letting stakeholders down by having a mature process, and yet I couldn't avoid it.

In my head, I was searching for a repeatable process.
Something I could apply to discovery and implementation that would reliably get us from idea to delivery.

What I got was people.
People with emotions, expectations, hopes, assumptions.

The process might be smooth on paper, but the moment you add humans, it bends.
And it should.

The work is social.
The system is alive.
And the mess is where understanding is made.

Until next time,
Dermot
​The Messy Middle

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