Why is there never enough time to do it right?

There is this adage “why is there never enough time to do it right, but always time to do it over?” depicting that in the long run it almost never pays of to try to do something quick and dirty. Once again my friend and esteemed colleague Tom Breur made an excellent point on this effect in his blog post.

The flip side

But there is a flip side to that. While I seriously loathe the “quick and dirty” approach so many people still try to make work I am also weary about “getting it right the first time.“
Because "getting it right the first time" just isn’t in the mindset of the scientific method. Nor PDSA/PDCA. Nor Inspect and adapt. Nor does it cater to the nature of knowledge work.

Can we ever get it right the first time?

Of course it is possible to get things right the first time. For example if we're talking about launching a product. Or if it is about adhering to our code of conduct. And – and that is especially important in my point of view – we can work in what we consider to be the right way. Using the right tools for the job. Sharpening the saw in between felling trees. Just generally being good craftsmen.
Take the iPhone for example. Taking into account that it factually redefined the market it was obviously "done right the first time." Unlike for example the newton, which had a solid follower-ship but just didn't get traction with the mainstream.
Or take electric light, the classic example. More than 1000 experiments until there was a working lightbulb. But when it went public, it seemingly was done “right” from the way cities look at night these days.

So what’s the trick?

I don’t know the trick to getting it right the first time, but in all the efforts I have seen that managed to “get it right the first time” there was a lot of learning through experimenting (which means a lot of failures) before things actually went ’live’.

If you want to get it right...

... remember that in most knowledge-work and especially in software development, it is necessary to do it wrong a couple of times in order to find out what right really means.

...and still be willing to do it over.

Because over time you will learn. And add funny things like Copy&Paste. What they did on the iPhone. After it broke all sales records for smartphones at that time.

So, yes: Take your time to get it right. And please do not expect everything to be right the first time!

till next time
  Michael Mahlberg