Skydiving rules that also apply to IT projects

Career AdviceWorking Life

Here you'll learn how to use the principles of skydiving to manage your IT projects.

So first things first: what do IT projects and skydiving have in common.

Skydiving:

• Has an objective and planned outcome,
• is limited in time and resources (altitude),
• requires advance planning,
• can lead to serious problems if mistakes are made during execution,
• offers almost no control over the environment
• depends heavily on the people around: they can either contribute significantly to the success or lead to failure in everything.

It sounds like an IT project, right? With one small difference, of course: A skydive lasts about five minutes and an IT project lasts five months or, if you're unlucky, five years. So let's get back to the point that leads to a successful skydiving project, to land softly.

The environment

This includes weather, landscape and who is on the plane. A common mistake in IT is that managers at different levels start doing something without taking a moment to gather information about the current state of the organization or the system, what's going on and why and what the main business direction. Unfortunately, the environment is usually out of our control and we have to adapt to it. Ignoring this simple fact can result in significant costs in terms of resources and possibly even the failure of project goals.

The planning

Every phase of the jump, from take-off to landing, must be precisely planned according to information gathered about the environment and what is desired to be accomplished. Most jumps are not carried out by a single individual, so it is essential that everyone involved understands who is responsible for what. If the jumpers fail to plan and communicate effectively as a group, chaos will ensue during the execution of the jump. Remember that time is very limited; if something goes wrong, valuable time will be wasted trying to fix the problem instead of carrying out the original plan. If the weather conditions are not taken into account and the jumper is not properly prepared, he or she may end up landing in a tree instead of the designated landing area.

Such hurdles also appear in IT projects - employees spend time with problems that usually only arise from a lack of cooperation and advance planning. Eventually time ran out and something had to be released that was far from the planned landing.

The safety

The equipment check is made when one prepares, is made before boarding the plane, is made while flying, is made before jumping. In addition, one constantly goes through all scenarios in one's head. Of course there is a reserve parachute that is checked every 180 days. Of course, the map has been checked to know where the reserve landing zone is located.

In IT projects, everything should be checked just as well:

• Who knows what to do when production servers go down? Are people trained for this?
• How often was it checked whether the business plan actually worked? Are there backups? What is plan B?
• Has the deployment rollback flow been tried? Is it tested every time before deploying? Is there such a process at all?
• Are the systems monitored - can action be taken before a problem becomes critical?
• And although a system failure can result in significant financial losses, the above points are often not considered.

The priorities

When skydiving, the priorities sound relatively simple:

• The parachute should be able to open.
• The parachute should open at the right height.
• The parachute should only be opened in a stable position.

These rules are deliberately kept simple - but all the more plausible - so as not to lose too much time and altitude if you "only" have to open the parachute. For IT projects, priorities may not be that simple, but most of the time they either don't exist or are so vague that it can be difficult to make a simple choice between two JIRA tickets.

Worse - everything is top priority and you're supposed to do everything immediately at the same time. In such cases, in the event of unplanned events, the team has no choice but to work overtime or push back release dates.

The teammates

When time is tight during skydiving, good teamwork is essential in order to achieve great things. When teams know each other and are familiar with the behavior of their colleagues, they can better react to and solve problems. To build such teams, several steps are required before employees can work together as a team. Experienced members help to build a team faster and take on more difficult challenges. However, one cannot expect people who have never worked together to play perfectly together from the very beginning.

There are not enough opportunities for people to build IT teams properly for some reason. Without team building being supported, it would be better to act as a group of independent actors. A well-built team produces coherent work; therefore, if you need support from a colleague, you would know exactly where to find it and what to expect.

The second thing that is often overlooked is the fact that teamwork takes time. Of course, you can work much faster on your own because you don't have to wait for others and you don't have to coordinate with anyone. A popular misconception: "Let's throw a few more people into our IT team and they'll be faster."

It is often overlooked that a team needs some time for the gears to mesh properly.

The calmness

High stress levels can lead to decreased cognitive function. The first jump in skydiving is very stressful, and can make it hard to remember and repeat three simple actions. It's important to relax in general, and avoid sudden movements or changes. You shouldn't be too slow with your decisions, but rushing leads to mistakes--it takes five to ten times longer to recover from a mistake than it does to just take a deep breath and relax. So take it easy!

Conclusion

All activities in the world of skydiving have one goal: to make jumps safer and more predictable. The industry is constantly evolving in this area.

When you combine environmental and safety knowledge with proper planning and prioritization, teamwork and calmness, your IT project will be fun to execute - just like one of the most nerve-wracking sports in the world. That's probably why this is all so fun - the balance between following the rules and having fun.

Disclaimer: No skydivers or IT projects were harmed in the writing of this article.