Mission Statements

The first thing we need to do when undertaking the development of a new system, or redesign of an old one, is to prepare a mission statement. The mission statement acts as a focal point for all involved in the system, and it allows us to weigh the importance of various features by asking the question "how does that functionality serve the mission?" In agile methodologies, to be discussed later, we would say that the mission statement plays the role of "system metaphor."

Writing mission statements can be contentious business, and many people resent or fear doing so because there can be a tendency to get bogged down on minutiae. Sometimes, mission statements tend to get very long and, in fact, evolve into a "vision" statement. A mission statement should be very short, descriptive, compelling, and never detailed, whereas a vision statement can be long. The mission statement is the "how" and the statement is the "what." A mission statement is almost a slogan.

One of the most widely cited "good" mission statements is the one associated with the Starship Enterprise from the original Star Trek series. That mission statement read

To seek out new life, to boldly go where no man has gone before.

This statement is clear, compelling, and inspiring. And it is "useful" fans of this classic series will recall several episodes in which certain actions to be taken by the starship crew were weighed against the mission statement.

To illustrate further, there is an apocryphal...