"The Goal" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Goal_(novel) - is an excellent business "novel" that digs into this topic. Recommending just because I found it such an eye opener.
The Myth of 100% Utilization
11–19 of 19 posts
Re: The Myth of 100% Utilization
#12tl;dr: don't treat your employees like cattle.
Re: The Myth of 100% Utilization
#13It's sensible to build some slack capacity into your scheduling because it increases your ability to take advantage of unexpected opportunities.
If you (or your staff) are all 100% committed to one project (and the schedule is based around this estimate) then you have few choices if another low-effort but high-payoff project comes along.
On the other hand, if you (or your staff) tend not to be fully utilised at all times then you will have reserve capacity to pursue these bonus opportunities as and when they arise.
Re: The Myth of 100% Utilization
#14“What if I told you you were probably getting more value than what you were paying, maybe one and a half to twice as much? Would you be happy with that?” The Manager calmed down, then turned to me and said, “How do you know?” I smiled, and said, “That’s a different conversation.” Welcome to why your manager doesn't understand this sort of thing - because you're passing up great opportunities to educate him. I honestl…
[deleted]
Re: The Myth of 100% Utilization
#15“What if I told you you were probably getting more value than what you were paying, maybe one and a half to twice as much? Would you be happy with that?” The Manager calmed down, then turned to me and said, “How do you know?” I smiled, and said, “That’s a different conversation.” Welcome to why your manager doesn't understand this sort of thing - because you're passing up great opportunities to educate him. I honestl…
I interpreted that as blog-speak for "That's my next blog post".
Re: The Myth of 100% Utilization
#16It seems to me that measuring utilization is like measuring the coastline of Britain. The more accurately you try measure it, the more meaningless the question becomes.
Re: The Myth of 100% Utilization
#17The 100% utilization mentality comes from the factory assembly-line manufacturing process, where everyone is just a cog doing simple and repeatable thing. It's easy to get close to 100% utilization.
However, it fails miserably in the creative process of software development. But unfortunately many managers at all levels adhere to it and use it in planning and project management. It's one of the reasons software project is often over budget and late in delivery. Of course the developers are miserable, too.
Re: The Myth of 100% Utilization
#18Maybe the problem here is the definition of “utilization”. Arguably 100% utilization should be what you get when someone is performing at peak efficiency, not when they're doing work every minute they are at work. And peak efficiency is shown in many places to require NOT doing work every minute you're “working”, both for physical and non-physical work. Even ignoring serendipitous thinking and the other mentioned adv…
Agreed. While it's harder to do, the goal should always be to measure output rather than input-lines of code is better than hours in the office, features built is better than lines of code, and dollars added to the bottom line trumps everything. Utilization is about as close to input as you can get.
Re: The Myth of 100% Utilization
#19Do these same managers consider themselves to be 100% "utilized"? What would that mean for a manager?