You don't get the best results, if you don't know where you want to go

Actually it is very simple. You need targets which you try to reach, but targets need to be focused to the correct direction and vision which you want to reach at some point.

Shall we end to this as it is so clear? Or think a bit further?

Over 20 years ago (oh my god the time flies) I started to wonder that how would I ensure the progress. I was not yet experienced, organization was young and not even certified and I was just collecting the ideas and knowledge to be able make some results. I came up with solution that at first I took the organization vision or actually wrote down how I saw the organizations vision as there was non stated. It was easy to formulate for myself in a small company which was almost a family of people with same passion.

The second step was that I had some ideas what would be good to achieve and I wrote those down for next 6 months. It was just a simple word file of one or maximum one and half pages. It was not fancy, but made really clear what should be done. Things were not in perfect order and much later in my career I actually noticed, that quite often you need to give things possibility to find their good timing, the best momentum to happen and cause much less stress.

Third step was to just proceed with the roadmap. The real beauty in this idea which worked better than I could have originally imagined was, that I knew where to really target and when ever needed I could look to the vision to remind myself what is the correct direction. Every step from that roadmap was taking us towards the ultimate goal.

Specially when you are new to development role it may be challenging to get the direction clear and get the progress rolling. That is the situation for us all, if perhaps the company is not so mature and there is not a clear plan already existing. In bigger organization you may start as a engineer with more restricted area of responsibility, but if you are in smaller company, you have the full playground and it may feel overwhelming.

Yearly targets, hopefully many of those process targets, are great help in all, but I truly hope they are aligned with the ultimate goals.

It is good to openly acknowledge that everyone of us is starting fresh and we need to make mistakes. Many ideas just do not work, but when something does not work, then we have a clue what to do or try differently. These words bring a smile to my face, because afterwards it is so refreshing and somewhat embarrashing to think some situations and what could have been done differently in the past and that there are so many mistakes still ahead.

Many times organizations are taking steps bit to that direction and then slightly to the other directions and it slowers the progres, even that there is progress. Work is done and progress, but as a lazy and results oriented person, I would feel most rewarding getting the most benefit of improvement with least amount of work - every step towards the big goal.

How would you feel? What's your way to ensure the progress?