Or: Plan at a Barbell of Time Scales Or: Sprinting is Slow, Walking is Fast --- sprint. (noun). 1. In running: to move as fast as possible, for a short period of time. 2. In software: to move as slow as possible, for a long period of time. --- Two weeks is too short to be relevant to strategy, and too long to be relevant to tactics. In the sprint, both the long term company success and short term developer happiness are sacrificed to the illusion of progress on the time scale of half a month. The sprint is perhaps the worst idea ever invented in all software. In a sprint, both the interests of the leader and the interests of the soldiers are sacrificed to the mediocre tyranny of middle management. I did not understand this until I became a middle manager. Never work for a company that uses the "sprint" model of planning. They will sacrifice the coming year and the present day to the false god of the fortnight, the coming month, while neglecting both the long term vision that determine's your company's success or failure, as well as the day to day issues of morale, motivation, autonomy, and productivity that matter on the ground among your soldiers today. The sun has two cycles: the day, and the year. The moon has one cycle: around 28 days. If you want your company to be ahead of schedule and under budget by next month's presentation, or next quarter's earnings call, don't organize your goals around the time scales of the moon. Aim each day to finish a year's worth of work, readjusting plans tomorrow to account for the reality on the ground. Some days you'll accomplish a month's worth of useful work. Other days only an hour or a few minutes. Use outsized ambition to keep the big picture clearly focused in your team's mind. Use daily adjustment to avoid the traps that turn days of time into hours of productivity, and pursue the directions that turn your days of work into months of value. This will make middle management extremely unhappy, since they no longer have the ability to plan two weeks ahead, using only the limited imagination of their clean hands and pampered minds. Their lack of usefulness becomes clear once they can no longer give you the illusion of progress that their position depends on. Rid yourself of such types. If you think you need management, see [[Institutions don't grant Authority]]. See also: [[Use Auftragstaktiks over Befehlstaktiks]] for how Napolean steamrolled Europe with exactly this approach.