Absolute Musts

Often, in meetings, I hear ‘Absolute Musts’ declared, stated or relayed; dates when something MUST be delivered, MUST be complete, or a feature that MUST be in a release. Unchallenged, Absolute Musts will fix factors of time, cost or feature, they will lead to a chain of assumptions, set the tone for what MUST happen, and reinforce action.

Usually an Absolute Must a statement to push an agenda or achieve an underlying objective; that same objective might be reached with choice of approaches, if you only understand what it is.

I think it’s really healthy to question Absolute Musts, find out what’s behind them. What, why and who said? Once you get under the skin, sometimes they’re not be so Absolute after all.