LinuxWorld has good advice for companies:
Trying stuff is cheaper than deciding whether to try it. (Compare the cost of paying and feeding someone to do a few weeks of [Perl or PHP] hacking to the full cost of the meetings that went into a big company decision.) Don’t overplan something. Just do it half-assed to start with, then throw more people at it to fix it if it works.
Via Kottke.org.
This speaks to what I call ‘analysis paralysis’ that you see in many large organizations (not just software organizations). Planning, risk analysis and management are important – but as some (early) point you have to just give it a shot. All too often, going out and giving it a shot has value. Even if something is a failure, but just giving a quick try you can cheaply take the lessons learned and have another go at it, wiser for the experience.
I’ve seen organizations think about a market opportunity so long they missed the market, or spent so much time trying to come up with the ‘perfect does-everything-ultimate-makes-breakfast’ solution to a problem they bombed in the market.
There is something to be said for taking a quick shot and seeing how it works out.
