Key Distinction · 01
Complete Work
A task completed as it was intended, from beginning to end — until one customer is successfully using it.
Delivering Complete Work is the key to performance at CRS.
A simple example: an engineer has completed a feature as intended and has tested it locally. While a milestone in and of itself, this is not Complete Work. To understand the distinction Complete Work, you have to go back to what the original intention of this work was and was not.
The intention of this work was not the technical completion (e.g. the development) of the feature itself even if that part was done to the reviewer’s full satisfaction. The actual intention of this work was to get this new feature into the hands of a customer, working as expected.
The completion of a task as it was intended (as distinct from how it was communicated), completed from beginning to end — in our example documentation completed, marketing having received all of their required information, sales people having been properly trained, the new feature having been rolled out in production with the necessary monitoring in place and finally, with one (1) customer having been brought on and now using the new feature successfully.
That is Complete Work.
A key tool that demonstrates Complete Work is a burndown list equipped with clear Intentions, Demonstrated By, and By Whens. Learn more here.