COMPLEXITY DEBT
EVERY PROJECT YOU HAVEN'T STOPPED IS STILL CHARGING YOU RENT.
One minute of film, then race your own projects. Start everything, or finish one at a time, and watch what each choice earns you in a year.
Monday. Good idea. Started it.
WHERE THE NUMBERS COME FROM
The switching cost
Gerald Weinberg's rule of thumb from software teams: every project you add steals a slice of your week to switching.
| Projects | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lost to switching | 0% | 20% | 40% | 60% | 75% |
Beyond five, this page levels off at 80 to 85%.
The race
One at a time, project one finishes in W weeks, project two in 2W, and so on. Start everything and they share whatever the switching leaves, so they all finish together at N × W ÷ (1 − loss), if they finish this year at all.
Why finishing compounds
Finished work earns from the day it ships: sales, enquiries, credibility. Half-finished work earns nothing, however close it is. Untick the switching cost and one at a time still wins, because the first project starts earning while the others are still being built.
These are illustrative numbers to show the shape of the problem. Your own figures will differ. The shape won't.
Every unnecessary commitment creates Complexity Debt.
From Stop Starting, Start Stopping®