He said that coding time has nothing to do with quality of code.
More than that, he said something that my team would stand up and cheer about...
"He said of time-sheets...
- they de-motivate developers
- 10-15% loss of productivity is the minimum
- developers have to fake the time to fill them out properly
- erroneous data is used for reporting and management makes bad decisions
- customers are deceived
- they have nothing to do with quality code production
- they focus the whole organization on phony data instead of production
Nevertheless, this is not enough for many managers to give up time sheets. Just like the waterfall process, there is a psychological dependency so strong, it is as if they are on drugs."
Responding to the question, "Why does bad management thrive?" Author and financial whiz, Ed Kless agrees with Jeff...
"Poor project management, poor leadership are caused by the reliance on the billable hour/time tracking. If time-sheets were illegal, partners would have to lead, managers would have to manager, supervisors would have to ... etc. In other words, the reason why they don't do is their erroneous belief that time=money. Time-sheets are no more than a crutch for the leadership/management challenged."
I wonder what these experts would say if I told them that three years ago, Decade Software developers tracked time in three places: Microsoft Project for reporting to management, Journyx for reporting to customers, and Microsoft Excel for reporting to payroll. Today, two of those have been eliminated, and we're taking a hard look at the third.
From my understanding, it is difficult to play well within the boundaries of California law without some form of time-sheet, but I'm making a few calls. As one who cringes at the phrase "that's the way we've always done it", I am curious to find out how other software companies tackle this challenge.
If this is another place we can improve productivity, I'm on it.
Watch this space to find out how I fare.
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