Category
GTD
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11.06.08The eight hour burnChad Fowler's book "My job went to India" is a must read. One of the chapters that I enjoy is the eight-hour burn. It all started when Extreme Programming introduced the concept that team members should work no more than 40 hour per week. Probably tagged as one of the most controversial practices of XP. Of course! The idea does not go well with Management. How can management accept that programmers are going to leave at 5pm? We have deadlines here! And on the programmer side, going above and beyond and being proud of burning the midnight oil is something that we ...
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10.08.08Collecting metrics helps you improve or are you just delaying the real work?I normally agree with the fact that collecting metrics helps you with measuring your steps towards a goal. Tracking your progress with several checkpoints along the way and revise your plan accordingly. But as long as the metrics are simple and require no complicated work to get them. Focusing more time on thinking about the collection of the right metrics or the "ideal" metrics take you away from the job at hand: getting better. And that's easy to do. Get a bunch of IT people into a room. Give them a problem. Soon enough, somebody will raise the question: "OK, we now ...