The Constant and the Storm
A program management field guide for delivering complex programs when the plan falls apart.
The plan is allowed to die. The program is not.
By Kaustubh Deshmukh
Kindle eBook available now. Paperback coming soon.
A program management field guide for delivering complex programs when the plan falls apart.
The plan is allowed to die. The program is not.
By Kaustubh Deshmukh
Kindle eBook available now. Paperback coming soon.
Most books teach you how to build a better plan. This one teaches you what to hold on to when the plan falls apart, through real stories from the field and a practical Working Method in every chapter.
Who deliver projects every day and want to see the bigger promise each one serves.
Who own the outcome across many teams, partners and dates.
Who carry delivery across hardware, software, cloud and the customer.
Who depend on programs landing and want to know what really happens inside them.
Who want to know what the role really asks of you, before the first storm hits.
The mission and the promise you made. The benefit your customer was told they would get, and the date it was promised for.
It does not move. Protect it.
Everything that attacks the plan:
Sixteen chapters in five parts, plus one honest detour about a program that got away.
Every program has a promise that nobody is allowed to break, not even the plan.
Programs are not delivered by plans. They are delivered by people who disagree.
Reality will attack your plan from five directions. Your job is to protect the promise, not the plan.
The program we underestimated, and what it taught me.
When everything is moving, delivery comes from how you communicate, decide, and close the loop.
The storms are getting bigger, and artificial intelligence is changing the role. The constants matter more than ever.
“Nobody’s fault. Everybody’s problem.”
The Opening
“Working parts, broken promise.”
Chapter 1
“A benefit you cannot test is a wish, and wishes drift.”
Chapter 2
“The mission date is not part of the schedule. It is part of the promise.”
Chapter 3
“Plan hard, hold the plan loosely.”
Chapter 4
“If everything is an escalation, then nothing is.”
Chapter 6
“You can freeze the scope, but not the world it serves.”
Chapter 8
“A risk is a cost, so price it.”
The Program Manager’s Compass
“Shipped is not delivered.”
The Program Manager’s Compass
Kaustubh Deshmukh is Global Head of Program Management at a technology company, where he leads the delivery of complex programs for customers across several continents. He has spent more than fifteen years in technology programs, the kind with too many stakeholders, shifting ground, and deadlines that refuse to move.
He began his career as an embedded software engineer, writing firmware close to the hardware, and moved from there into product delivery and program leadership. He lives in Pune, India, and writes about delivering programs in a world that changes faster than the plan.
Connect on LinkedInThe Constant and the Storm is available as a Kindle eBook, readable on any phone, tablet or Kindle. A paperback edition is on its way.
Paperback coming soon