How projects work
Simple Rules Discovery
Find the small set of project rules that help people make clearer decisions, avoid predictable traps, and keep delivery moving.
The idea
Use experience without making work vague.
Simple Rules are the practical conditions, prompts, and decision filters that experienced people use when a project is uncertain. They make hard-won judgement visible enough to test, share, and use.
They are not a one-size-fits-all checklist. The useful rules are the few that fit the work in front of you, expose the real risk, and help the team choose what to do next.
The aim is simple: turn project expertise into clear working guidance before the project becomes noisy, expensive, or politically stuck.
Explore
Choose the route that helps now.
Create your rules
Use the guided tool to write down the rules already sitting inside your project experience.
ArchiveDiscovery vault
Browse previous Simple Rules notes and examples when you want a wider set of prompts.
ReadingExternal resources
Follow the project research, books, and papers behind the Simple Rules approach.
What to look for
The strongest rules usually do one of three jobs.
They name what must be true.
Examples include the right sponsor, a real user problem, or a team that can decide quickly.
They filter what to do next.
A useful rule helps reject attractive options that do not support the outcome.
They catch failure early.
The best rules make weak signals easier to discuss before they become expensive facts.
Method
Find them, test them, then use them in the work.
Start with lived experience.
Ask what expert project people notice first, what they never ignore, and what they wish teams would decide earlier.
Compare the pattern with real failure causes.
Do not rely on experience alone. Check the rule against evidence about why similar projects actually fail.
Make the rule useful at the point of choice.
Use each rule to shape meetings, filter decisions, challenge assumptions, and focus the team on the conditions that matter most.
Once identified, make applying the Simple Rules your focus. If a proposed action does not support the rule, it should be challenged, changed, or dropped.
Next step
Write down the rules that already guide your best work.
You have already learned from projects. The next step is to make that expertise visible enough to trust, improve, and share.
Check your projectbefore the next big decision.
Run the quick check. Save your setup later if useful.
Free to start. No credit card.
Confluity Project Model sitemap
Model overview
What are Jobs?
The model is organised into three Jobs:
Job 1: Set the Direction – shape the purpose into options and a preferred way forward.
Job 2: Prove It Works – test assumptions and reduce risk before going big.
Job 3: Make It Happen – deliver at scale and make sure people actually use what you build.
What are Simple Rules?
The model contains simple rules. These are short principles drawn from experience that help you make better decisions. Jobs, tasks, and plays help you put those rules into practice.
What is a Play?
A Play is a method or tool that helps you apply a rule or complete a task. Use the recommended Plays first for simpler projects before exploring others.
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