August 9, 2018 at 1:11 pm
Eric M Russell - Thursday, August 9, 2018 1:01 PMIf babies die because an IT staff member happened to be on vacation, then there is something very wrong about the organization's functional dependency on information technology.
Absolutely.
Things happen. We had a manager unexpectedly die over a weekend a while back. Fiat-Chrysler lost their charismatic leader unexpectedly as well (fortunately for them, I think Mike Manly will be able to keep things going.)
Closer to IT, our group all has our specializations (SQL, VM, Networks, Web, etc), but there is enough group knowledge that with cooperation, situations can be handled.
...
-- FORTRAN manual for Xerox Computers --
August 10, 2018 at 12:12 pm
Steve Jones - SSC Editor - Thursday, August 9, 2018 12:25 PMJeff Moden - Thursday, August 9, 2018 12:15 PMThat's incredibly true. And that's why training to do it right the first time is so very important.I also think that you forget that training people, or people learning to do things well and right, takes time. Most of us won't write code nearly as quickly, or as quality, as you. We need time to get there. We also need time to make mistakes.
We can't act as if we're saving babies, which puts pressure on you. Saying we're not saving babies also doesn't imply we can blow things off and not try. It's that we can't treat everything like it's critical. However, we can still work hard, learn to be better, and be professional, doing the best we can, putting in a hard day's work.
Of course and I get all that. Contrary to what it appears, I also agree with most of it. My biggest point is that saying things like "we're not saving babies here" inadvertently becomes the war cry of rafts of moroffs that use it as an excuse for their DILIGAF attitude rather than as the observation it was meant to be. It's kind of like the supposed Senior Developer that used Knuth's fine parable to justify using NUMERIC(18) for all integers and NVARCHAR(256) for all text based columns (even as small as zipcode) to get out of doing things right.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
August 10, 2018 at 1:10 pm
GeorgeCopeland - Thursday, August 9, 2018 11:58 AMjonathan.crawford - Thursday, August 9, 2018 11:43 AMI think it's a good perspective to have, because workplaces always tend to take the approach of "we'll accept however much effort you want to put in". Some outright ask for more than others, but nobody is going to stop you if you try to work an 80 hour week. Unfortunately, that will leave you sick and/or dead if you keep it up. So, learning that "work" is a firehose and all you can do is drink what you can and divert the rest, comes in handy. Do what work you do well, with reasonable expectations of yourself, try to manage the expectations of others to be in line with reality. Let the rest go, try not to over-stress about it. Yes, I suck at that too.Productivity falls off quickly after 40 hours and workaholics are not nearly so productive as they think. What's more, they drive everyone crazy. So yeah, I am going to tell you that I am not impressed by the hours you put in, why don't you try to pick up your productivity and get it done in 40? A key to success in IT work, maybe anywhere, is to prioritize. If you are always working productively on the most important task, there is very little else that can be asked of you, and you will be maximizing your chances of success.
Where I work we use the agile process. A key member of the data team is the product manager, whose job is to negotiate with the different areas of the business what the top priority actually is. I'm the team leader but he sets the order of things to do. We also have sprints, a scrum board and daily 10 minute meetings. It's the first firm I've worked at that uses this, and i have to say it works very well. I have been here since Dec 2015 so something is working. If something is not finished in a 2 week sprint then we carry on with it or re-estimate what effort is required. Our estimating skills could be better. 🙂 The point is the work life balance is very much a priority for the head of IT, so if you are putting in extra hours then something is wrong. He can always look at our board as it is on public display and see what we are up to, and most of the time we just get on with it. "Drive by's" (unscheduled urgent work) occaisionally pop up but usually any new task gets put into our backlog and the PO schedules it as and when required. Work well.
Dave
August 10, 2018 at 1:16 pm
David Jackson - Friday, August 10, 2018 1:10 PMWhere I work we use the agile process. A key member of the data team is the product manager, whose job is to negotiate with the different areas of the business what the top priority actually is. I'm the team leader but he sets the order of things to do. We also have sprints, a scrum board and daily 10 minute meetings. It's the first firm I've worked at that uses this, and i have to say it works very well. I have been here since Dec 2015 so something is working. If something is not finished in a 2 week sprint then we carry on with it or re-estimate what effort is required. Our estimating skills could be better. 🙂 The point is the work life balance is very much a priority for the head of IT, so if you are putting in extra hours then something is wrong. He can always look at our board as it is on public display and see what we are up to, and most of the time we just get on with it. "Drive by's" (unscheduled urgent work) occaisionally pop up but usually any new task gets put into our backlog and the PO schedules it as and when required. Work well.Dave
Meant to say works well. I can't find the edit button on the mobole site 😀
Dave
August 10, 2018 at 1:32 pm
David Jackson - Friday, August 10, 2018 1:10 PMWhere I work we use the agile process. A key member of the data team is the product manager, whose job is to negotiate with the different areas of the business what the top priority actually is. I'm the team leader but he sets the order of things to do. We also have sprints, a scrum board and daily 10 minute meetings. It's the first firm I've worked at that uses this, and i have to say it works very well. I have been here since Dec 2015 so something is working. If something is not finished in a 2 week sprint then we carry on with it or re-estimate what effort is required. Our estimating skills could be better. 🙂 The point is the work life balance is very much a priority for the head of IT, so if you are putting in extra hours then something is wrong. He can always look at our board as it is on public display and see what we are up to, and most of the time we just get on with it. "Drive by's" (unscheduled urgent work) occaisionally pop up but usually any new task gets put into our backlog and the PO schedules it as and when required. Work well.Dave
Agile methodology is a gift from god. You are right: if people keep having to work overtime, your planning is bad.
August 13, 2018 at 2:25 am
Steve Jones - SSC Editor - Thursday, August 9, 2018 8:55 AMSean Redmond - Thursday, August 9, 2018 12:23 AMI rather like being without the Internet. It's a bit like being without access to a coffee-machine. I realise that when no coffee is available, I can live perfectly well without it.I tend to read. I think I got through 7 or 8 books on the trip, which was nice.
If you like podcasts, I'd suggest Gladwell's Revisionist History and Ezra Kleins main one
Noted. I'll check them out. Thanks for the recommendation.
August 13, 2018 at 6:28 am
GeorgeCopeland - Friday, August 10, 2018 1:32 PMAgile methodology is a gift from god. You are right: if people keep having to work overtime, your planning is bad.
I'll agree that Agile done correctly is a gift from God. It it's done incorrectly, then it's worse than any cowboy shop you can imagine.
No matter what, though, I do agree that constant overtime is using caused by poor planning and a knee-jerk reactive environment rather than a pro-active one.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
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