11–20 of 23 posts
Up to 80% of a typical dev time these days (depending on the company and the project) is idle waiting for a build to fail again, deployment to finish, all teammates showing up to another useless meeting, writing stupid performance reviews, arguing about secondary yet unavoidable issues on slack and pr comments, etc etc.
I ran a team for about a year and was constantly pushing them to do less. The team were the ones trying to pile on more work, a force of habit I think.
I noticed that when we planned less, people finished faster (probably due to greater focus and a quick finish in sight), then they pulled more into the sprint and ended up getting more done. We actually went faster when we tried to do less. I’m hoping that being told to slow down all the time meant it wasn’t actually stressful for them either. I always wanted to have slack in the system so we weren’t having to perform heroics and pull all-nighters to meet arbitrary deadlines. If something came up, we could fit it in, because we weren’t overloading ourselves. And when nothing came up, we flew.
I stepped back into an IC role, as I didn’t really enjoy running things. The person who took over was skeptical of how I had done things, but was told to try going with it, since we had been so successful. Overtime there was some regression. After a couple more management changes, we are the polar opposite. Everyone is stressed and it seems like very little actually gets done, because everyone is stretched so thin on too many projects at once. Everyone looks really busy though, I guess that’s all that matters anymore.
I’m constantly arguing for more slack in the system. Too many managers treat knowledge work like it’s a factory. I ran a team for about a year and was constantly pushing them to do less. The team were the ones trying to pile on more work, a force of habit I think. I noticed that when we planned less, people finished faster (probably due to greater focus and a quick finish in sight), then they pulled more into the spr…
This is a dangerous tide incoming. I once had a conversation with a new exec as to why a certain team doesn't "look busy". In their mind people are just "coasting" and need to pull up their socks and improve delivery. The concept of being proficient and streamlined about your work simply didn't strike a chord. That place went downhill pretty fast.
For everyone else you need to occupy their time with tasks as much as possible because their value is linear.
Yes, and it’s now up to us as managers to engineer that ebb and flow as part of the process. Don’t assign too much work all the time. Make sure that the employees feel excited and rewarded for their hard work (don’t just dump another pile on their desk). Make sure their work is diverse enough so they are not stuck doing the same slog all the time. Make sure the employee sees the big picture of the company - this is h…
I’m constantly arguing for more slack in the system. Too many managers treat knowledge work like it’s a factory. I ran a team for about a year and was constantly pushing them to do less. The team were the ones trying to pile on more work, a force of habit I think. I noticed that when we planned less, people finished faster (probably due to greater focus and a quick finish in sight), then they pulled more into the spr…
> Everyone looks really busy though, I guess that’s all that matters anymore. This is a dangerous tide incoming. I once had a conversation with a new exec as to why a certain team doesn't "look busy". In their mind people are just "coasting" and need to pull up their socks and improve delivery. The concept of being proficient and streamlined about your work simply didn't strike a chord. That place went downhill prett…
People who write code with a lot of bugs end up looking like heroes, because they are always jumping in to fix their breaking code, while someone who takes the time to properly test and write solid code is seen as slow and less capable.
The house of cards just keeps growing, and everyone is on the verge of walking out.
Idle time can still be incorporated, it just has to be _in_ the tickets, not between the tickets, then everyone is happy.
A ticket for one day to add a new button, then an idle day is bad. A ticket for two days to add a new button keeps everyone happy.
What are you talking about? Up to 80% of a typical dev time these days (depending on the company and the project) is idle waiting for a build to fail again, deployment to finish, all teammates showing up to another useless meeting, writing stupid performance reviews, arguing about secondary yet unavoidable issues on slack and pr comments, etc etc.
It would be very valuable to the community if you name-and-shame the company and manager that would evangelize such an obviously dogshit idea.