Dates!

Alexander, the project manager, is in the process of setting up a small project schedule. He needs Jack’s input on the same.  

Alexander:  What’s your estimate on this software update?

Jack:  I believe I would take 25 days for the code itself but the documentation and review with the team will take about 10 more days. 

Alexander:  That is very close to what I thought too. 

Jack: Great! I’m glad this fits in with your expectation. I was worried it would upset you since the customer is waiting for us to deliver.

Alexander: Oh no! You have to write the code; you know best what it takes. You don’t need to please me. I’m just the guy who manages other things around your schedule. 

Jack: Thank you Alexander. I think you are a great manager. I am glad you understand why it will take me this long. I think I can go back to work with a peaceful mind now.

Scheduling backwards

If this Dilbert comic strip rings a bell, you might want to continue reading.

Raj is working on a project declared as the number one priority by the company. If this software does not get released within the next month, the company will not meet certain certification standards for the product which in turn will affect the sales this year.

Mark, the project manager, is very keen on moving fast. “We must do what it takes! The certification test has been set to end of the month. A week before that date, we should be testing the software. This means, the software should be ready by the end of this week. Raj, will you be able to deliver?”

Raj is thinking “This is such a critical project. It seems like an emergency. We will all be in trouble if we can’t get it done.”  He responds, “Yes, absolutely! I’ll try my best.”

Raj takes the ‘do what it takes’ command seriously. He is working late, fixing bugs the ugly way and is headed straight towards completion. What about documentation and reviews? We don’t have time for everything right now. We can do it LATER! We just need to pass the test.

 

Weeks later, the software is certified. There is a short celebration party held for the team. Champagne is served. Everyone is happy. Raj is beaming with pride. 

The next year, the company is in the same situation for another round of certification for a similar software update. But this time, Mila and Paul are on the software team. And what else is new? The project manager is Alexander. 

Alexander understands the significance of the project very well. But he starts like this “Mila and Paul, can you give me an estimate of how much work this is? It would be nice if we had some dates to go with it.”

Paul says, “Yes, sure. Well, the design document will take about a week’s time; the software itself will take about two weeks. Mila says she will review it in a week. We are both attending the training session for a couple of days within that period too. So I think the software will be ready for test within five weeks from now.”

Alexander notes down the dates and reports it to his boss Alisha. Alisha is shocked. She says “The last year’s team did this in one week. This year your team is going to cost us extra money. We had everything scheduled and now we need to spend on getting it all re-organized. Last year, getting the software cost us NOTHING!”

Mark imposing a deadline, Raj working overtime hours, the team ignoring the software process last year sent a wrong a message to the company’s top level management. They had started believing that they could impose any deadline for small software updates and it will be delivered more or less on time. It was a monstrous myth building in itself- Software is free!

Why spend on travel?

Mila, as you know, is one of our high performing software engineers based in California. She is smart, sensitive, works well in a team. Mr. Schultz is her German counterpart in the new project. He is a fairly nice guy, respected by his peers for his contribution, excited to work with the American team. Both get along very well over emails and phone conversations and are collaboratively working on this fast track project. 

One day, there is a disagreement between the two. Mr. Schultz is very critical of Mila’s software and presents his ideas on how she could improve it. He doesn’t hold back any criticism telling her how the basis of her idea is just plain wrong. You see, he comes from a culture with no pretense; they speak what they feel. Mila, on the other hand, is a strong individual but sensitive to her audience when she speaks. Mila decides Mr. Schultz is just a stubborn person who is not accommodative of others. She thinks his intention is to ridicule her ideas. “Why would he always oppose what I say otherwise?”

The next week, something comes up and their project manager Karl decides that Mila should visit their German facility. Karl says, “I know we are cutting on costs this quarter but this might help the team work better and faster. There seem to be a lot of ideas going back and forth. ” Mila immediately grabs the opportunity and is excited to meet the team in Germany. She spends a month there. They work hard that month; they work late nights, share a beer or two, but make it “one productive month!”

In that one month, Mila learnt a few things about Mr. Schultz. He is open and straight-forward, not stubborn. He gives you an honest feedback, no pretense there. Mila realizes that Mr. Schultz’s extremely critical feedback actually led them to create a very stable software by the end of the month.

How did Mila’s opinion change? Because she saw the man in action! She saw the emotions and reason behind his critical emails. She began to understand the goal behind the criticism. And so on…

So, is travel really expensive?

Is Overtime simply Overkill?

This one is a modified version of a scenario described in the book Peopleware(which by the way, is a great read).

Jack, Suresh, Mila and Andrew are a closely knit team of four is working on a project. They are all high performing engineers and work well within a team. These are salaried employees; so they don’t get paid for overtime. 

The company is not doing so well this year and a very important software update needs to get released by the end of the month. As a result, the project manager requests the team to put in some extra effort and get it done. They all know it is a very visible project in the company and the CEO has shown special interest in its outcome. They all know it is important to succeed as a team in this situation.

Jack has a bit of a situation though; he cannot stay late hours. His wife’s job demands that she work evening shifts. So, Jack has to take care of the kids. Now, the rest of the team understands this and offer to “cover for Jack” willingly. Each day, the four of them work together till 4pm and then Suresh, Mila and Andy stay back till their everyday goal is met. They order-in pizza, call their loved ones but never leave the office till they feel like they have achieved something for the day. Week 1 is exciting; Week 2 they are all overworked, the software doesn’t seem to be very stable, their spouses are unhappy but “Jack leaves exactly at 4!”

Come Week 3, the frustration levels are higher; Suresh and Mila start cribbing about how “How Jack gets to go home early!” 

Week 4 is the worst; the software has to be released and the team is still fixing bugs. “But Jack doesn’t care!”  or does he? 

Of course, Jack cares. But now we see how a closely knit team has started falling apart. We don’t know how overtime helped the company produce better results. May be they were all so overworked, that the software was extremely buggy. But even worse, now a great team which ‘could kill’ to succeed, has fallen apart. 

Has the company saved some overtime money? May be. Has the company lost much more than that? Think about it…

I am a people person

I have begun reading books and blogs about people behavior in organizations. Almost all of them are written by people with years of experience in this area. I want to try writing a blog on this subject from a current software engineer’s perspective. These would typically be examples of people behavior I have seen at work or outside and some ‘lessons learnt’. From time to time, I might throw in some nuggets from books, articles or videos typically related to organizational behavior. I may make up some stories to explain certain things better. Pardon me if I write occasional side-posts just to feed my blogging hunger.

My opinions should be taken with a grain of salt. They might even change over the course of time and that probably is just an indicator of the fact that I am actively learning.

For those not very interested in this subject, give this a shot. You might just find that connection with your everyday life. For the rest of you, hope this keeps you interested. :)