Originally this phrase was invented by Ernest Hemingway as a writing technique where he would use this technique when writing short stories. Basically, it meant that he focussed on the surface parts of a story and not the underlying meaning or sub-stories.
Like Ernest’s writing technique this phenomenon also exists in projects.
Have you ever worked on a project or program and asked the question what is left to do still? Usually, these questions are asked close to the end of a project or when the project is in dire straits.
What happens in situations like these is that you get the update from your team that they are almost there and just need to finalise a couple of issues and or deliverables, and herein lies the problem, it seldom is just a couple of issues and deliverables that are left,and the more deliverables you complete the more items seem to be outstanding.
On the surface it does look like it, but as you dig deeper and deeper or get closer to the end of the project, the more issues or outstanding deliverables seem to appear, and similar to Hemingway’s writing technique, you the project manager are left to almost “figure” out what is still required to be completed on the project based on what is evident on the surface – above the water line you see what seems to be a fairly sized piece of ice, but underneath the waterline lies a much bigger, yet to be measured part of the iceberg.
So how do these things come to be? Do the development teams not tell you what is really going on? Are there so many unknowns on a project that you just never know how big this iceberg ever is, or are we just that bad at planning and controlling development projects that this is the new reality we must face and prepare for when delivering and managing solutions?
In essence I don’t have all the answers or the silver bullet for this issue, but I do know this, and that is that the iceberg effect is a very real and a true challenge that project managers face on development projects. By implementing better planning upfront you might have a better understanding of what exactly needs to be completed in order to achieve the end goals of the project, and this will enable you to plan better for the unforeseen or in this case the unseen iceberg under the water line.
With some experience, some of us might be able to blatantly see the deeper meaning of the story (project) as Hemingway envisioned it originally, but for the rest, plan as much as you can up front, ensure that everybody understands the end product the client is requiring and know and understand how the team will get there. Ensure that you standardise your delivery method as well as your technology stack and ensure that you, the team and the client are in constant communication in order to identify and mitigate any issues that may arise in the course of the delivery cycle.
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