It can be difficult to recognize your biases in making business decisions. Most people, I believe, prefer to think that they can evaluate options fairly and form strategy based on independent judgments. But the truth is, many strategic decisions are poor and could stand to be vastly improved. A recent McKinsey Quarterly study of 2,207 executives found that only 28 percent said the quality of strategic decisions in their companies was generally good, 60 percent said that bad decisions were about as frequent as good ones, and 12 percent that good decisions were altogether infrequent. With almost 3 out of 4 decisions just as likely to be bad as good, something is definitely wrong.

I was discussing software process with some colleagues the other day; I mentioned my usual analogy that process is like the brakes in a car.  Brakes allow a driver to safely drive faster than they would be able to otherwise.