Kill It with Fire

Legacy modernization projects go better when the individuals contributing to them feel comfortable being autonomous and when they can adapt to challenges and surprises as they present themselves because they understand what the priorities are. The more decisions need to go up to a senior group—be that VPs, enterprise architects, or a CEO—the more delays and bottlenecks appear. The more momentum is lost, and people stop believing success is possible. When people stop believing success is possible, they stop bringing their best to work. Measurable problems empower team members to make decisions. Everyone has agreed that metric X needs to be better; any actions taken to improve metric X need not be run up the chain of command. Measurable problems create clearly articulated goals. Having a goal means you can define what kind of value you expect the project to add and whom that value will benefit most.