First principles

The foundation of anything worthwhile is based on a set of first principles, master these first.

If you’re a business analyst, it’s understanding what people do. It’s not how to write a user story.

If you’re a martial artist, it’s base, posture and structure. It’s not how to do a flying omaplata.

If you’re a chess player, it’s controlling the centre, activating pieces and protecting your king. It’s not mastering the queens gambit.

If you’re a project manager, it’s making sure everybody has what they need to do their work, and the time to do it. It’s not keeping a log of risk and issues and updating project plans, and following people around asking them if they’ve completed tasks (come on, an intern can do that).

If you’re a tester, it’s making sure the system works as intended and not buggy. It’s not checking acceptance criteria.

We always lose sight of first principles. In project work it’s evident when we ask “why are we doing this?” and the answer is either unknown or garbage such as “business transformation”.

First principles are simple, but critical. It’s the why, it’s basic but mostly forgotten.