I’m 48, almost 49. I have been making software in one way or another since I was 20. I have 28, almost 29 years of watching more crash and burn development efforts then I care to list. Yes, I have seen success, but it is a small fraction of the number of projects that spiralled out of control.

Why?

Leaders demanding it all, right here, right now, touting their market credentials, experience and acumen, bullying the deliverables and shifting the targets. Pushing the lack of business clarity and focus on to development to resolve or make clear.

Real leadership must have a mission and philosophy that is the Rock of Gibraltar. Every need is smashed against it and only the most important and simplest of ideas, with the greatest of clarity, are put to the team to test, conspire with, and create. Real leaders know that their effort, their contribution, is equal in time or greater, than the effort it takes to program what results, and they make that investment generously.

Every time I have witnessed myself and others fail to afford this effort and discipline, disaster results. Hopefully I have finally scarred myself deeply enough that I can never, ever, forget. We’ll see.

A Date, as in a day on the calendar, not the romantic encounter.

A point in time to which you are personally accountable.

The end point that inspires purpose and passion.

The time box that sparks innovation and invention.

The milestone by which others must be ready.

The deadline by which your boss must say yes or no.

The most cost effective personal coach and trainer.

Your marker of achievement and victory.

Dates are the grease that create frictionless progress, they are the engines that keep you on the wave of change.

A date is your best ally. Why then do so many run from them?

Be brave. Be aggressive. Set a date. Keep it.