In this post I posed the following question:

Once is luck,

Twice is coincidence,

Three times is a charm,

What is four times?

The clues I gave to the correct answer were that it was work related, I came up with this in a business meeting and that the answer could be gleaned from my previous posts about work. The correct answer is "Four times is a process".

I was hired here as a QA Specialist and the vast bulk of my first months was spent designing and implementing processes for Development. For the last month I've been designing and implementing processes for Project Management as well as taking on my own Business Analysis and Project Management tasks. I came up with this little saying during a meeting on those processes to make a point that it isn't enough to say what we are going to do and how we are going to do it. We actually have to DO IT like that and we can't consider it a success process until it has been verified by actual repetitive successes.

If anybody has any experience with change management (getting people to do something differently than they have been) you probably have a fair idea of how difficult it can be to get people to "follow the plan". It's where the term "herding cats" comes from.

Anyway, there were some great guesses and points shall be awarded!

Third Place (1 point): vw bug Four times is... one partner too many.

Second Place (3 points): Oorgo
Four times is... repetitious.

First Place (5 points): shank
Four times is... the fine line between persistence and harrasment.

And a bonus point each for the folks who tried to find the business angle:

vw bug for ...only good for brainstorming.

knpepper for ...a project plan complete with willing project sponsor;
a real budget with real money; and real target audiences.

Wendy for ...a contract.

Helen for ...a promotion.