Echoes
21/07/06 08:55 Filed in: Work
I try to keep
up with some of the movers, shakers, visionaries and
commentators that a) I know about and b) I hold their
views with respect, authority and interest. One of
these is Robert X Cringely, whose comments I first
met years ago when reading InfoWeek regularly.
Anyway, the article that stunned me was delivered in may and yes I've only just got around to commenting.
You can read it for yourself at http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060518.html
The comments about billable hours are strong echoes on my current work outlook. The gathering of billable hours and revenue is something that is shouted loud and often proud by management. This is often to the detriment of delivering efficiently. We are all guilty - we all add contingency and eventually after anything has gone through enough people then amount of contingency can be greater than the core effort needed to accomplish the thing. Of course, in this age of protecting against failure, we all do it. In an era of job insecurity, the busier we are the less likely we feel at risk.
This is not the only aspect this malaise - getting requirements agreed is becoming a specialist job.
Anyway, the article that stunned me was delivered in may and yes I've only just got around to commenting.
You can read it for yourself at http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060518.html
The comments about billable hours are strong echoes on my current work outlook. The gathering of billable hours and revenue is something that is shouted loud and often proud by management. This is often to the detriment of delivering efficiently. We are all guilty - we all add contingency and eventually after anything has gone through enough people then amount of contingency can be greater than the core effort needed to accomplish the thing. Of course, in this age of protecting against failure, we all do it. In an era of job insecurity, the busier we are the less likely we feel at risk.
This is not the only aspect this malaise - getting requirements agreed is becoming a specialist job.
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