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What problem are you trying to solve?

That’s the catchcry at work these days.

One of the fundamentals of a project that’s likely to succeed is a clarity of understanding about what benefit a project will bring to a customer. If everyone on the project can describe what problem it solves without laughing, particularly the systems engineer, then a project is likely to go well.

I back this up with my memory of a guest lecturer I saw at UTS sometime around 1998. I can’t remember his name, but he was describing the method of project management at NASA, where he worked as a project manager, since the shuttle disaster and budget cut-backs. The head of NASA would tour project offices and ask everyone on the project “How does this project benefit humanity?” If that couldn’t be answered convincingly by everyone on the project, then he was likely to kill the project.

That brings me to my mea culpa.

Two weeks ago, I was out buying a housewarming gift with my two eldest children. We parked in the gravel car park behind a store we were visiting. In the car park was an industrial bin that contained two old wooden box skeletons. The sort of shoddy wooden construct that used to protect crockery, amphoras, vases and that kind of thing during long ocean voyages.

“Can we get that box?” inquired one child.

“Yeah! Lets get those boxes.” gushed the other.

We discussed them and decided that they’d be good for making something. We just couldn’t think of anything. So we picked them up and put them into the boot of the car just in case they’d be useful for something.

It rained last weekend so in an attempt to keep the kids and myself entertained, and my spouse sane, I got the boxes out of the car and the toolbox out of the shed and stood around discussing what we could make the boxes into.

“A chicken cage!” was one suggestion. “What about guinea pigs?” was another. I don’t want any more pets. We are already on version 2 of our cockatiel, and our 14 year old cat still behaves like a 3 month old kitten coming down from a bad crack addiction.

So, in desperation, and without allowing “what problem are you trying to solve?” to enter my consciousness, we built this:

Loosely speaking, it’s a “ball holder.” It did solve the problem of being at a loose end on a rainy weekend.