Estimating the ennui

Projects suffer from ennui as much as people.

We identify project ennui as a lack of focus, a lack of progress, a lack of “shit getting done and done right.”

Project ennui is pervasive. But it is not continual.

Every project will have it at some point, it comes and goes in irregular cycles.

Project ennui becomes a problem when it is ongoing, when there is something actively blocking forward progress.

Identifying those factors, whether it be individual members of staff (rarely), direction, focus, clear goals or identifiable, actionable day-by-day tasks and then actively mitigating their effect can put an otherwise recalcitrant project back on the path.

It is when we try to identify a single source of project ennui is when the real problems start.

Ongoing ennui, that we cannot resolve, becomes project depression.

And from that, we get a failed project.