Sustainable Pace Turnaround

On news:comp.object, Randy A. Ynchausti wrote:

I don't enjoy watching developers have to work crazy hours. I stayed late with them every week night that I could -- usually 4 nights per week till one or two in the morning. Sometimes, the developers had to stay past the time I left. I wasn't part of the coding team, but I wanted them to know that I was a member of the team.

I'm currently working with a software VP in charge of about 50 programmers. His department was despised by the CEO and executives because they were always late, always producing poor quality, etc. etc. Meanwhile the programmers were working horrible overtime, working very hard to try to get the needed work done. The upper execs eventually punished the team by refusing to give them their yearly incentive bonuses. Morale was at an all time low.

The VP then did two things. He started planning and delivering in 30 day cycles (using SCRUM) and he prohibited overtime. No one was allowed to work more than 40 hours per week.

That was 18 months ago.

Now the development team is the darling of the company. They are getting stuff done, quality is high, morale is high, productivity is high. Other departments visit them and ask why they can't work that way.

This is a true story. IMHO overtime slows software teams down. They get less done by working 60 hours/week, than they do by working 40. I think this means that programming is not manual labor. Hours don't count. What counts is thought. You can think better when you are rested.

Think of it like this: If you work 40 hours/week, you get N good thoughts per week. But if you work 60 hours/week you get N/2 good thoughts per week.

--Robert C. Martin