This Hacker News discussion revolves around the effectiveness of management practices, the impact of interruptions and task switching on productivity, and the role of tools and processes in software development.
The Importance of Structure and Focus
A central theme is that clear structure and focus are crucial for team productivity, often more so than the specific agile methodologies themselves. One manager shares their experience improving a team's performance by implementing fundamental organizational practices like sprints and a dedicated on-call person. This eliminated constant, disruptive task switching.
"As a manager I strongly agree with this post. Iām currently responsible for taking a team whose old manager wanted to go back to being an ic. The team has a reputation for being slow, not being the best at architecture. So far I donāt really care about that. The problem is that no one at any level can even agree on what their priorities should be. When every standup youāre told to do something different of course youāre going to be slow. And this isnāt to bash the old manager this is coming from above him." - roxolotl
"The problem is that no one at any level can even agree on what their priorities should be. When every standup youāre told to do something different of course youāre going to be slow." - roxolotl
The impact of focus is highlighted:
"Itās crazy to me how little many leaders Iāve encountered appreciate focus. I do think part of the problem is thrashing looks productive to some leaders. But it almost never is. Thereās that quote: āslow is smooth, smooth is fastā. It almost always holds true." - roxolotl
The Double-Edged Sword of Interruption and Task Management
The discussion delves into the nature of interruptions and how they affect individual and team productivity. While some acknowledge the necessity of responding to urgent tasks, others argue that constant interruptions are a symptom of a deeper problem. The idea of "polling" for tasks versus being "interrupt-driven" is debated, with some suggesting that even polling can be a form of interruption.
"kazinator: I don't think that people multitask only because they have multiple unprioritized tasks." - kazinator
"You could well have everything prioritized, and be multitasking between your highest priority task and interruptions." - kazinator
"By acknowledging interruptions, you appear responsive, even if you don't start working on them." - kazinator
The manager's role in shielding the team from unnecessary interruptions is questioned:
"wredcoll: > You can't ignore all interruptions. How do you know your boss doesn't have something urgent that will preempt your current highest priority task" "Isn't that literally the job of the manager? Don't they know what tasks you're assigned and what priority they are?" - wredcoll
"If not, what value is the manager bringing again?" - wredcoll
A counterpoint suggests that the ease of modern communication tools exacerbates the interruption problem:
"YZF: In the days before Slack and being constantly plugged in people were a lot more conscious about interrupting others and we had less interrupts. The reason we have more interrupts today is that it's just too easy to interrupt people. Not because we really need them - we don't. It makes us a lot less productive." - YZF
Critiques of Tools and Processes
There's a strong sentiment that while necessary, tools like Jira, especially when burdened with complex workflows, can become "soul-deadening." The focus can shift from building software to managing tasks within the system. The ideal state is seen as one that optimizes for getting work done rather than just tracking it.
"I don't envy project managers who are responsible for tracking all our engineering shenanigans and trying to communicate trends to upper management. They have a hard, thankless job that probably needs to be done. But the tooling they so often inflict upon teams (I'm looking at you, Jira), is soul-deadening." - kstrauser
"Bug trackers are great. As soon as they involve a workflow with statuses more complex than backlog/to-do/doing/review/done, too much of the devs' job seems to involve keeping the task manager happy instead of building software." - kstrauser
"I don't know where the happy medium is. I won't claim I know a better way. But I do know I've worked in shops that optimized for getting work done, and I've worked for shops that optimized for tracking how much work is getting done, and the former outdelivers the latter every single time." - kstrauser
The Manager's Role and Motivations
The discussion scrutinizes the perceived motivations and effectiveness of managers. Some accuse managers of prioritizing rapid feature delivery above all else, leading to technical debt and customer issues. There's also a concern that managers might be rewarded for shipping features while ignoring product satisfaction or underlying stability problems if those aren't directly tied to their KPIs.
"mrkeen: Managers only have one phrase in their vocabulary: "Get this one feature out as quickly as possible." Everything else is just making devs 'heard' (so they can get back to feature)." - mrkeen
"The sooner we get the feature out to the customers, the sooner we can gather feedback and change our product"." - mrkeen (quoted as a manager's phrase)
"Anyway you all know the punch line: there's no 'later', there's no 'stabilisation', only the next feature. And the feedback that we get from the customer is support tickets because the product doeesn't work." - mrkeen
"jmaker: But the manager gets to report a new feature, a boon to their career, at the cost of the devsā careers and satisfaction. The manager might be glossing over or just muting any product satisfaction issues, particularly if no one in their line of report directly puts a KPI on that. Thatās about company culture." - jmaker
The Human Element: Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose
Offsetting the critiques, the intrinsic motivators of autonomy, mastery, and purpose are put forward as a framework for productive work. A manager's role, from this perspective, is to foster these elements for their team, allowing for a more self-directed and effective environment.
"One framework is autonomy, mastery, and purpose. If this is what drives people and helps them be productive then the manager's job is to give his team autonomy, facilitate them becoming masters, and explain the purpose of their work." - YZF
The Problem of Poor Prioritization and Communication
A contributor suggests that a significant cause of failure stems from poor prioritization skills and the inability to articulate challenges. This, combined with poor management, creates a recipe for disaster. Even with ideal tools, if individuals cannot effectively manage their tasks or communicate their difficulties, productivity suffers.
"In my experience, where things go most sideways isn't forced use of clunky tools but rather poor prioritization skills amplified by poor articulation skills. In other words, the worst offenders are people who are bad a prioritizing, and bad at verbalizing what they're having trouble with so they can get help. Of course, poor management on top of that will practically guarantee massive failure. But without employees (at any level) who have insight into their situation, and can communicate well, you're dead in the water before you've even started." - kmoser