Crafting Engineering Strategy

Chapter 12. Bridging Theory and Practice

Some people I’ve worked with have lost hope that engineering strategy actually exists within any engineering organization. I imagine them unimpressed as they read through the steps to build engineering strategy or the strategy for resourcing Engineering-driven projects. They probably see these ideas as theoretical at best. In less polite company, they might even describe them as fake constructs.

Let’s talk about it! Because they’re right. In fact, they’re right in two different ways. First, this book explains how to create clean, refined, and definitive strategy documents, but most real strategy artifacts initially look rather messy. Second, applying these techniques can require a fair amount of creativity. It might sound easy, but it’s quite difficult in practice.

This chapter will cover:

• Why strategy documents need to be clear and definitive, especially when strategy development has been messy

• How to iterate on strategy when there are demands for unrealistic timelines

• Using strategy as a nonexecutive

• Handling dynamic, quickly changing environments where the diagnosis can change frequently

• Working with indecisive stakeholders

• Surviving other people’s bad strategy work

Let’s dive into the many ways that praxis doesn’t quite line up with theory.

Clear, Definitive Documents

The last chapter explored why documents that feel intuitive to write are often fairly difficult to read. That’s because thinking tends to be a linear-ish ...