Train Your Replacement

Problem: How to leverage ComingUpToSpeed.

Context: You're in a new situation, and are "coming up to speed." There's not a lot written down yet. Others will follow the same or similar paths as the project staffs up or evolves.

Forces:

• You want to be up to speed and productive, and want to avoid anything that slows this process down.
• The organization needs productive people.
• The project needs to get more "stuff" written down.

Solution: Adopt the mindset that you're responsible for training your (possibly fictional) replacement. (If it feels safer, suppose a new team member instead.) Arrange to gather and record information that will help your replacement come up to speed. This mindset will drive you to seek a deeper understanding of issues. (And pushing issues on behalf of a third party may feel somehow safer.)

Resulting Context: You'll achieve a greater understanding of the problem at hand than you otherwise would have, and you've cleared the path for those who'll follow. If you're promoted and actually end up with a replacement, it's probably a win-win. At worst, you'll have refined your skills at problem definition and refinement, and will have helped the project get things written down.

-- DaveSmith (3/8/96)