What in the world is Vanilla?

[nissan240zx]

I have been hearing a lot during business meetings about
"Vanilla method"..
I would like to know what this means..

Thanks

A good programmer is someone who looks both ways before crossing a one-way street. - Doug Linder

 

[eyeswideclosed]

God more corpspeak...

 

[johnherman]

Vanilla usually means "Without frills" such as "plain Vanilla". Like going out for ice cream and they ask you do you want syrup, nuts, cherries, etc. No just "plain vanilla". As in the simple solution, or the obvious solution.

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The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was - Steven Wright

 

[Scott24x7]

Nissan,
Johnherman is right. In this case, your "basic PMing" is going to consists of the simple things: Time, Scope, Cost management... To Eyeswideclosed's comment, this is certainly a point where someone is either wants to be ambiguous, thus placing the responsibility on you for everything, so if they don't get something they want, they will come back and say, "Well, we told you very clearly we wanted "X" level of service". Be very careful about that. As a PM the best thing you can do is to create either a Project Definition Report, or a Project Execution Plan that clearly defines the deliverables, when they will be delivered, and who is responsible for their creation.
That way, you have something to come back to if they try to blow the scope of your activities suddenly deciding that you are responsible for managing the P/L when in reality you should just be tracking project expenses to the budget they have laid out.
Just an example... but yes, when I hear a term like that used in a meeting to describe what I will be doing, it sends of big red flags...



Best Regards,
Scott

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[alvinpm]

Yeah, vanilla means 'common' or 'plain'. I personally prefer rocky road.

hmmmm