Adding more resources – a damaging post
Time and again, I am exposed to this famous dialogue from various damagers aka managers who have crossed my life.
Damager: So, you are already working on this right? how long would it take to finish this task?
Me: Hmm.. I’m already half-way through this.. should take 20 more days.
Damager: Yeah, but yesterday I attended a senior manager level meeting, the business unit is targeting for XX,X, we need to complete this by 10 days.
Me: But I am afraid it’s gonna take 20 more days anyway. We gave this estimate when we started and the BU agreed. I’ve worked on similar projects and it’s a realistic estimate.
Damager: That’s fine! see, we need to come up with creative solutions!! Think out of the box! You are saying 20 days if you alone work on it, right? Leta add more resources! What is X doing? I think he is free for now. We can use him.
That way 1 x 20 is the same as 2 x 10. We can reach the 10 day time line.
< I would’ve crossed half the bridge alone, and now this guy says ‘add more resources’. >
Me: (within myself: Naan enna sengal adukkara velaya panren… che..kothanaar ai ellam damager a potta ipdi than… ) But I’ve already done half the work, adding more people now will only mess things up! I need to spend time talking about this project and hand hold X before he comes up to speed. All this will take time!
Damager: No no no, do not jump to conclusions. See you are resisting this idea even before trying this out!
Epilogue: Both guys would’ve spent 20 days and it typically takes a few days more to finish the task. Andha payyanavadhu nimmadiya irundhirpaan. Sani oruthanai mattum dhaan pidichadhu nu irundhirkum!
That ‘adding more resources is the one stop solution to all problems’ is a myth among desi IT project damagers that cannot be condemned enough.
And I used to wonder how things work at damager’s personal life.
Damager to his wife: Darling! It’s been 3 years since we got married, we are already behind schedule, we need to plan for a kid fast. That’s there in my 2010 roadmap. H1 goals.
Damager Wife: What’s there to plan? It takes minimum 9 months anyway.
Damager: No No No, we need to push up things, 9 months is the time line only if you try alone.
Damager Wife: What do you mean??? Me alone?? How can…You’ve lost all your brains ever since you became a damager!!
Damager: I know.. che..no no..what I mean is, I will add more resources.. two more women along with you and the eqn is 1 x 9 = 3 x 3 = 9, so our baby will be out by Dec 2009, ahead of schedule!!!
September 24th, 2009 at 3:47 am
“adding manpower to a late software project makes it later” - Brooke’s Law
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mythical_Man-Month
Fred Brooks wrote one of the best books on this topic more than 3 decades back and that includes the 9 wives delivering baby in 1 month analogy. In all these years I have known only one indian manager who was even aware of that book (but he too only had a theoretical understanding). If you talk to the real good programmers or managers in the US, most of them know have read ‘The Mythical Man Month’ and it’s easily one of the all-time favourites. It enjoys a cult status.
The root cause here is the pre-dominance of service companies which rely heavily on time and materials, head count etc to fleece their customers. So long as the head count based charging continues there is no end in sight. But this is not the only reason, after all Fred Brooks wrote his books after his experience in developing IBM’s OS/360. Some other links:
How many people report into you ?
Why do we have so many jobs in Bangalore ?
In Indian companies it serves the middle mgmt’s interest to stuff as many people into a project as possible.
September 24th, 2009 at 6:59 am
BNB
I know about Fred Brookes and I do know this law though I have not read that Mythical man month yet. Indha book PMP certifications laam pannina makkalukku theriyadhadhu dhaan aacharyam.
I took that analogy from one Buffett quote…
I completely agree with your take on this…
This is incentive caused bias or economists solra madhiri ‘agency costs’
The only way to.. well there is no way out with Indian managers actually.
September 24th, 2009 at 7:40 am
:))
> Damager: No No No, we need to push up things, 9 months is the time line only if you try alone.
idhu ipdi irundha ?
Damager: No No No, we need to push up things, 9 months is the time line only if I try alone.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:24 am
I wouldn’t really blame the Indian mgmts totally - the real problem lies in the companies (mainly in the US) who outsource for the reasons explained in one of those links. There’s also plenty of grease involved in these deals. If only someone had explained the dynamics of outsourcing when I started out, so much of energy could have been saved from the huffing and puffing over ‘how things are so wrong’ at s/w companies. No wonder managers are so full of contempt for folks like us who do “actual work”.
“…there is no way out with Indian managers actually.” - Correct ! Once I was eating at Gopi Iyengar’s near the west gopuram of Meenakshi temple (during the glory days of the restaurant) when I heard one of the frustrated staff members telling his colleague: “Oye, Indha Pozhapula saavu dhaan orey vazhi oye”. I went in search of this sage a couple of years back during a trip to MDU - couldn’t find him, Gopi Iyengar had changed hands.
September 24th, 2009 at 12:05 pm
chakra,
You know what, I did think about that for a moment, aprom suthama matter post aagidum nu vittuten :))
September 24th, 2009 at 3:24 pm
I find that this is something that exists everywhere, not uncommon at where i work. Intha paazhapona Senior level damager meeting ellam naasama pogatum.
Hmm, anyway, most Senior Level damagers are all senior level kothanaars thaan.
Ella groundworkum naama pannanum, aana oru nerathula oru Doubt Dhanabaaluvai namma kooda serthu vitutu, naama velaiyai seekiram mudikanum nu oru anbu kattalai poduvaanga.
Antha Doubt Dhanbaalu oru sariyaana ar** kisser aa irupaan !!!
All in a Day’s work, at the end of the day.
September 28th, 2009 at 10:45 pm
Deepak
sorry for responding late. Yeah kothanaars becoming managers is not new. But In Indian IT, as BNB says, there is a strong incentive for damagers to be that way.. i find it systemic.
September 30th, 2009 at 5:07 pm
That idiot did not know that out of the box, innovation etc become more difficult when the deadline is shortened?
October 7th, 2009 at 5:12 am
Hey! I think you are talking about my danager man… are you working in XxxXxx and X E X team?
October 25th, 2009 at 6:11 am
LOL. Very funny. I laughed my heart out.