Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

web.mit.edu

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 446 posts

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#151

Post by mixmastamyk »

paxys wrote: post #144

Went through this exact scenario at my job recently. As the tech lead/architect of an org I reviewed a bunch of recently released projects and identified areas that needed critical improvements because they had major reliability/performance issues. One team had multiple releases at the top of the list, and their PM and eng manager (and really everyone else up the chain) simply ignored all concerns because they had to…

Well, you could dust off the old email and 'mistakenly' send it again. Though it will seem petty, a small fraction might rethink the past few months.

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#152

Post by nijave »

legitster wrote: post #117

This is wonderful description of the kind of hellhole corporate Scrum is turning into. Agile was literally about doing things quickly and quick cycles of capability improvement. But Scrum is a worse version of the planning processes it meant to replace! If anything, the way scrum lays out the work into immediate problems exacerbates the cycle. In the long run it just turns into a ticketing system where fires get push…

I've found it works better when you "build up" to Scrum by incrementally adding processes when you identify issues and relaxing the process if things are working well.

Adding a bunch of processes because you want to add processes doesn't provide value.

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#154

Post by _heimdall »

This us an incentives problem, plain and simple. Its extremely difficult to quantify things that don't happen, and because we've been building our economies and societies around a heavy focus on quantitative metrics we end up only incentivizing people to solve problems. Even create problems on purpose if you need to, you'll get credit for fixing them.

Human Resources departments often run into this exact scenario. Many of the tasks that fall into HR are hard or impossible to quantify, and if done well they're also solving problems before they manifest.

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#155

Post by kevindamm »

Scoundreller wrote: post #88
runamuck wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Easy - half a$$ your code and when it breaks - swoop in, "fix things" (actually do it right) and play the role of hero! (I've seen so-called "Rock Stars" at places I worked do this over and over)

don't even need to half a$$ it, just use timebombs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_bomb_(software) Usually only works if you're the only dev, unless you get creative with counters like the original devs that made some nice cash fixing it all for y2k (officially: don't do this)

2038 is getting closer every year...

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#156

Post by damianh »

cjbgkagh wrote: post #100
hakunin wrote: post #27

I've been contemplating the issue in the headline, as pertains to my value. When I help somebody in 40 mins with something they've been stuck on for 3 months, my value is clear to everyone. When I work there the whole time, and nobody ever gets stuck for 3 months, my value is unclear. Don't know how to deal with this paradox.

I've done that as an hourly contractor, I fixed their 6 month problem on my first day, I hoped they would then hire me for more hours on other stuff but they were like nope, that was all we needed. They did tell some other companies that I was good at this kind of stuff but nothing came of it. My first and last day in contracting for small companies.

The trick is to do these sort of engagements as a fixed price contract. You could have probably done an assessment in a hour or two. Then you charge on what you estimate is the value to the company.

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#157

Post by epolanski »

zx8080 wrote: post #149
wolverine876 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life and its rewards aren't perfect. Work with honest, intelligent people; genuinely do your best; your days will be much better and the odds will be with you.

> your days will be much better and the odds will be with you. In the context of one's effort valuation it seem to be a very bad advice. Unfortunately.

Intelligent people will see that you solved issues before they even happened.

So in small teams where visibility is clear those things are obvious.

It's in larger orgs where you want to climb the ladder that you get bonus points for the problems fixed but not those you prevented.

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#158

Post by faiD9Eet »

femto wrote: post #114

Take a leaf from the OH&S book, as OH&S is all about stopping things from happening. Many work places have a huge "Days Since Last Lost Time Accident" sign hanging out the front. It increments every day and the aim is to get it as high as possible. The same metric could be applied to "Days Since Last Stuff Up That Cost Us". It would be easy thing to apply to an office door or cubicle wall.

I beg to differ. If you have a metric on "time since last outage", people will be incited to hide problems.

There is extensive writing on this subject http://rachelbythebay.com/w/2021/06/01/count/

Re: Nobody ever gets credit for fixing problems that never happened (2001) [pdf]

#160

Post by AlbertCory »

Suppose on Sept.10, 2001, you were an airline executive who successfully forced installation of jimmy-proof, secure steel doors between the cockpit and the cabin?

The only "credit" you'd get is "This guy cost the airlines god-know-how-much money, and for what? An imaginary threat!"

Post reply on HN