IT, Technical Operations and the Cult of Done

Sometime in the last couple of years I became aware of The Cult of Done Manifesto.  It's targeted at artists, writers and other creative types and is a call to action, a reminder that getting to the end of something is the point, not being perfect.  I read it over a couple of times and felt a stirring in my brain that somehow this wasn't so different from the world I lived in, albeit with some differences.  

I decided to take a stab at creating a version of the Cult of Done manifesto for IT and Technical Operations. It's a work in progress, but I've shopped it around to some people in the know* and I think it's pretty damn close.  With full credit to Bre Pettis and Kio Stark, I present the IT/Ops Cult of Done Manifesto.

• There are three states of being:  Not knowing, action and completion
• Accept that everything is a work in-progress.  It helps to get it done.
• Don't make big decisions.  The fear of screwing them up paralyzes you and keeps you from being done.
• Make hundreds of small, calculated decisions.  Being done one hundred times is better than sex.
• Don’t be afraid to make a mistake. Mistakes are a way of identifying what ELSE needs to be done.
• Pretending you know what you're doing will get you up to your eyeballs in screaming bosses and pissed off co-workers.  But if you know 75% of what you need to know to get the job done, do it.  The other 25% will get hashed out before it goes live.
• STOP FUCKING PROCRASTINATING
• If you have an idea that can't be fleshed out and implemented in a day it's too big for you and needs to be dropped, kicked up the chain, or cut into smaller steps so that you have things that can be accomplished in a day.
• The point of being done is not to finish but to get  other things done.
• Once you're done you can throw it away, shit-can it, or never look at it again
• Perfection is the pursuit of those too afraid to get things done.  It's boring and keeps you from being done.
• People without any dirt under their nails are wrong; doing something makes you right
• Failure counts as done.  So do mistakes.
• Throwing the whole thing out and walking away counts as done.
• If you can outline your idea in a paragraph, do it.  Documenting an idea is like foreplay for done. It’s also the afterglow.
• Write down your plan.  Plans are maps to the land of done.
• Follow the process.  Processes make sure you get it done over and over without having to reinvent the wheel.
• Done means documented, regardless of outcome.  Documentation is the key to making sure everyone gets it done.
• Make lists, checking things off is being Done! If you do not have it on a list, it will never get done.
• Automate all the things! Automation is the ultimate list and removes the possibility of human error when getting stuff done.
• Use whatever tool is best to get the job done, not the one that is most shiny.
• Broken things are fucked.  Your job is to unfuck things.
• When you encounter something broken make sure that it gets identified and documented.  Unidentified, undocumented things never get fixed and suck away resources and time.

What do you think? What's missing? What doesn't belong?

(*Thanks to Ralph, Bryan, Josh, Dave and Andy for the input.)