The Return of the King

12/16/2003

“All that is gold does not glitter, Not all those who wander are lost, The old that is strong does not wither, Deep roots are not reached by frost, From ashes a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring, Renewed shall be the blade that was broken, The crownless shall again be king” - J.R.R. Tolkien

Okay, so I’m a confirmed geek. I bought tickets online for a showing of Return of The King today.

Interestingly, if you listen to the interviews that director Peter Jackson and crew gave, you get a good feeling for how they pulled off this massive undertaking. Time and time again these hard-working folks asked themselves, “what more could we do here? Wouldn’t it be cool if…” They gathered a crew of highly talented people, and let them use their talent wherever it may take them. Even the lowliest extra, weighed down in tons of Orc costume, has opinions that are valued and used to polish the production. The result? Oscar territory. Record opening grosses. A cultural phenomenon.

Contrast that to the typical software project, where few sponsors are willing to hire the top talent. The lowliest members of the team have no input, and are usually told some more polite variant of “shut up and code!” As a result, instead of asking ourselves “what more could we do here” we ask ourselves “what’s the least I can get away with?“

It’s the same approach kids use when cleaning their rooms. What can we get away with that no one will notice? Hide toys under the bed? Shove it all in the closet? Parents, much like end users, have a tendency to notice these feeble subterfuges pretty rapidly.

If you want to add value, don’t try to get away with less than is needed. Ask yourself what more you could do—and not necessarily in terms of extra features or options, but what more could you do to test the code better, or make it more robust, or more aligned with what the sponsor wants.

Get into that habit, and maybe Oscar will smile on you as well.