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F.I.R.E
How Fast, Inexpensive, Restrained, and Elegant
Methods Ignite Innovation

Dan Ward
Copyright 2014 by Dan Ward. Published by arrangement with HarperBusiness, an
imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.
240 pages
[@]

Rating
9
Applicability
7
Innovation
9
Style
8

Focus
Leadership & Management
Strategy
Sales & Marketing
Finance
Human Resources
IT, Production & Logistics
Career & Self-Development
Small Business
Economics & Politics
Industries
Global Business
Concepts & Trends

Take-Aways
F.I.R.E. meaning fast, inexpensive, restrained, elegant is the right approach to
project management.
Rely on small teams, tight budgets, short schedules and simple goals.
Project restraints on personnel, money, time and goals foster creative thinking and
imaginative solutions.
Limit the documents you create, the meetings you conduct, the budgets you allocate,
the teams you direct and the schedules you set.
Big budgets, long schedules, huge teams and project complexity impede success.
For most projects, faster, cheaper is better than slower, more expensive.
NASA succeeded for many years with a formal faster, better, cheaper approach.
You can often find the best project solution by adapting someone elses tested tactic.
Project delays inevitably cause even more delays.
Shut down any project when costs exceed budget by 15%.
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F.I.R.E getAbstract 2014 2of5
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Relevance
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What You Will Learn
In this summary, you will learn:r1) How to apply the principles of the F.I.R.E. fast, inexpensive, restrained,
elegant approach to project management; and 2) Why it is effective.
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Review
Project management pro and military technology expert Dan Ward spices up his informative writing with wonderful
asides and management war stories. He writes in accordance with his principles: Wards prose is straightforward,
lacking in ornamentation and clear. He advocates a simpler-is-better approach to all projects and urges managers
to use less money, fewer people and shorter time frames in pursuit of less complex goals. He spices up his
informative writing with spark-plug references, including Star Trek, steampunk, Superman, the Death Star, the
Tonto, Frankenstein and Tarzan School of Public Speaking, and more. getAbstract recommends Wards readable,
commonsense, no-nonsense, counterintuitive principles of project management to executives, managers, business
owners and students, and promises you will laugh as you learn.
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Summary
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The big secret is that
the best products arent
the most expensive and
complicated.
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A superficial pursuit
of speed, thrift,
simplicity and restraint
results in products that
are simplistic, cheap,
hasty and too small.
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More P-51s, Please
In 1942, during World War II, Colonel Homer L. Tex Sanders, commander of the 51
st
Fighter Group of the US Army Air Corps, wrote his superior officer to request more P-51
Mustang fighter planes. Sanders explained that he and his fighter pilots loved the P-51
Mustang because it had perfect handling qualities. He stated that the P-51 outperformed
all other US fighters in speed, range and maneuverability. Sanderss assessment was right.
During World War II, P-51s flew 213,800 combat missions, and US pilots flew them for
35 years after World War II. During its many years of service, the P-51 proved that it was
the premier fighter of its age.
Before they become operational, many aircrafts require years of design and prototyping,
plus the concentrated work and specialized expertise of thousands of engineers and other
professionals. Modern aircraft often take decades to develop. In contrast, a small team
spent just a few months creating the P-51 prototype. Sanders admiringly described it as
an extremely simple aircraft. He liked the P-51 because its engines, guns, radios,
instruments and other parts are the same as those used on the P-40 a companion fighter
aircraft. Its simple design made it quick and easy to build (10 per week) and maintain.
A 1944 Aviation magazine article described the P-51 as a plane that does not to any
extent embody previously unknown engineering features, but rather employed refinements
of known, accepted practices.
This brief history of a fighter plane demonstrates that best-in-class performance can directly
correlate with speed, thrift, simplicity and restraint. The P-51 excelled because it was
developed quickly, inexpensively and with simplicity in mind.
Consider the US Air Forces F-22 Raptor stealth fighter, a complex plane the US began
developing in 1981, but that wasnt operational until 2005. Engineers first designed the
Raptor to confront the Soviet air force. By the time it was ready for service, the Soviet air
force was no longer a factor and the costly plane no longer had a mission. By 2013, though
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F.I.R.E getAbstract 2014 3of5
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FIRE codifies
the...principles and
tools used by some of
the best technology
developers in the
world.
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Work expands to
fill the time allotted,
so adding time to
the schedule easily
becomes a self-fulfilling
prophecy.
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Process-centric
improvements have a
maddening tendency
to be process-centric,
despite official protests
to the contrary.
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We need to focus on
building things we
know how to build,
using things we know
how to use.
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the US had run air operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya, the Raptor had not flown
one combat mission.
F.I.R.E. Power
The P-51 embodied the FIRE project management principle. The FIRE acronym means:
Fast The shorter the schedule and timeline are, the better your project outcome will
be. Short for some projects means years, while for others it means days.
Inexpensive A small budget is more functional than a big budget. Financial capital
is not the key factor; intellectual capital is what matters.
Restrained Limit the documents you create, the meetings you conduct, the budgets
you allocate, the teams you direct and the schedules you set.
Elegant Shoot for project elements that are pleasingly ingenious and simple.
Prioritize true design maturity and true process simplicity.
Making a F.I.S.T
FIRE refines an earlier concept called FIST, meaning fast, inexpensive, simple, tiny. You
dont necessarily need gigantic budgets, vast teams and decades of intensely focused work
to develop great projects. You can succeed with a skeleton crew, a shoestring budget and
a cannonball schedule.
You are far more likely to deliver top-shelf stuff when you are working under constraints
than when you are getting all the money, time and people you think you need. It
seems counterintuitive, but project leaders who get large budgets, large teams and long
schedules are unlikely to meet all or even most of their project objectives. Managers
with the largest budgets were most likely to ask for more money and least likely to deliver
an actual working product.
Faster, cheaper stuff works better than slower, more expensive stuff. FIRE doesnt
focus on project management. It focuses on project outcome delivering a great product
that works according to plan. Instead of targeting procedures, FIRE helps your team make
the best design and production decisions.
Slicing the Gordian Knot
FIRE is a relatively new management concept based on respected leadership traditions that
are thousands of years old. Consider the story of Alexander the Great and the Gordian knot.
Alexander figured out how to untangle this remarkably complicated fibrous labyrinth
he just slashed through it with his sword. Many times, the best approach is the simplest.
Flying High with NASA
For many years, the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) operated
successfully under a Faster, Better, Cheaper (FBC) program, which is similar to the FIRE
approach to project management. NASA based its FBC program on the following five
operating principles:
1. Do it wrong Create numerous quick-and-dirty prototypes. Many will fail, but you
can learn from your mistakes.
2. Reject good ideas Stay focused on the primary goal for your project.
3. Simplify and accelerate Design your work to be clear and quick.
4. Limit innovation For easier, faster testing and operating, avoid excess innovating.
5. Failure is an option If everything works all the time, youre not pushing the limits.
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F.I.R.E getAbstract 2014 4of5
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Constraining the
schedule forces us
to actively try things
rather than endlessly
study them.
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In a maddeningly
consistent dynamic,
projects that are
already late tend to
experience additional
delays. Projects that
are already over budget
tend to ask for more
money.
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The more time and
money we spend on
the thing, the more
complicated it gets,
which in turn drives up
the cost and schedule
even further as we
wrestle with all the
complexity.
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It is possible to deliver
a top-shelf product
without exceeding
the schedule and
budget and without
overcomplicating
things.
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The US military uses a project management principle called commercial off-the-
shelf (COTS). It emphasizes repurposing existing components and systems into new
applications. COTS can reduce costs, time demands and complexity.
FIRE Principles
FIRE assumes that the doer, not a series of rules, is the ultimate source of project wisdom.
It honors oral tradition and commonsense rules of thumb. The following FIRE principles
are not a definitive rule set but a guide to a way of thinking that relies on tradecraft and
ingenuity rather than rigidly defined procedures.
You cant design anything without revealing your values People who revere
complexity make their projects complex. People who equate big budgets with power
and prestige prefer to work with more money than less. Instead, emphasize the values of
speed, thrift, simplicity and self-control to work better and produce the best results.
You cant change just one thing Changing one element affects all others. With
FIRE, you cant tighten the schedule, leave everything else as is and hope that things will
work out. If you must move up your completion date, you must also cut your budget and
make things less complicated. FIRE offers a spectrum of decision making, not merely
a change tool.
Constraints foster creativity A lack of people, time and money forces managers to
become imaginative and come up with less obvious and often much better solutions.
A minimalist mind-set makes you put your focus on the essence of things. A lack of
constraint often results in overengineered solutions, bloated software and incoherent
PowerPoint decks.
Focus fosters speed Create a three-item project list that features the most important
things. Focus on these to avoid distractions.
Speed validates the need Legitimate projects satisfy clear needs. Need is easier to
establish in the short term than the long term. Fast beats slow. Speed in and of itself is
not your goal; its a path to a better project. By all means, be fast. But dont be hasty.
To finish early, start early Always be proactive. For example, have a collection
of sketches, notes, ideas and prototypes in the works.
Delays cause delays Project delays lead to external changes, including being
overtaken by technological advances that force project adjustments. Any changes you
make trigger additional changes, which create more delays. The result is a death spiral.
Do everything you can to prevent project delays.
A project leaders influence is inversely proportional to the budget Bigger
projects have high profiles. More people want to be involved in big projects and will
offer their opinions and assistance. In contrast, smaller projects dont attract as much
(unwanted) attention. This means more autonomy for project leaders and their teams.
Complexity is not a sign of sophistication Often, it signifies redundancy, excess
and duplication. Instead, streamline; reduction is as valuable as addition.
A great partial job trumps a bad complete job As you plan, focus first on high
priorities. Save the less essential things for later or ignore them. Build your project
approach on an iterative series of incremental steps that deliver the most important
capabilities up front. This rule is from Rework, by Jason Fried and David Hansson, who
emphasize quick wins.
The best way to unleash talent is to not have too much of it The bystander
effect manifests when increasing the number of people working on a project generates
a diffusion of responsibility leading to fewer positive steps. On a large team, it is easier
for each person to contribute less, something sociologists term social loafing. Reduced
contributions equals lesser projects. Making your team larger can be counterproductive.
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In an environment of
rapid change, long-
term projects are a
losing proposition.
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Speed without thrift
and complexity is going
to lead to a spectacular
crash.
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A low-cost solution
that doesnt work
is actually a pretty
expensive solution.
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Minimize the distance between decision and action The people on the front lines
are in the best position to make informed project decisions and to react intelligently. The
idea of subsidiarity, which derives from Catholic social teaching, says the smallest,
lowest or least centralized authority capable of addressing that matter effectively should
handle a job. In project management, this is the project team, not the higher-ups lacking
requisite project knowledge.
Quickly delivering new capabilities is...a strategic capability In the words of
former US Navy secretary Richard Danzig, build for the short term.
The future will be surprising; prepare accordingly Consider long-term outcomes.
You want your projects to last, so build a responsive capacity for change into your
operations and activities.
No more than one miracle per project The more your project involves immature
technologies, the more trouble you may incur. Dont set yourself up for problems.
Rely on existing materials, components, pieces, functions and ideas. Credit former US
representative Heather Wilson (R-NM) with concept of only one miracle at a time.
The FIRE prime directive Keep two primary FIRE concepts in mind: Never include
advanced technologies that you dont need. Dont overengineer; simpler is always better.
Heuristics That Dont Help
FIRE runs counter to three common-wisdom, traditional project management guidelines
which, on closer inspection, turn out to be foolish. Avoid three fallacies:
1. Faster, better, cheaper pick two In its faster, better, cheaper program, NASA
proved you can have all three: sound projects, low costs and constrained schedules.
2. You get what you pay for Lots of money can deliver a quality product, but so can
a small budget.
3. Take your time to do it right Cutting corners compromises quality, but that doesnt
mean that going quickly equates to poor work. Sometimes speed represents efficiency,
but sloth can harm project quality and undermine success as much as working too fast.
The world is a big place with billions of people and a rich history. Dont try to reinvent
the wheel. Be observant and resourceful; do your research; and you will likely discover a
solution that already worked for someone else and will work perfectly for you.
Simplicity Aint Simple
Complexity indicates an immature design. The best projects are the least complicated
and cost less. Yet, simple doesnt mean easy; FIRE doesnt come with a guarantee. Just
because FIRE is possible does not mean it is necessarily easy to implement. FIRE projects
sometimes go awry, as do bloated projects with huge teams, budgets and schedules.
Build your project on the principles of speed, thrift, simplicity and restraint. Use these
guidelines for problem solving and decision making. Dont rely solely on brainstorming,
that is, developing as many ideas as possible, good or bad. Also embrace storm draining,
separating great ideas from the ones you dont need. Pull the plug on any project exceeding
its budget by 15%.
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About the Author
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A low-cost innovation specialist, engineer Dan Ward is a lieutenant colonel in the United States Air Force. He plans
and develops military equipment.
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