Re: Auditing Programmers

[DAsmussen@xxxxxxx]

Booth,

In a message dated 12/8/99 7:30:51 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
boothm@earth.goddard.edu writes:

> Dean, management has to measure things.  It is difficult but essential. 
>  You point to the problem though.  A requirement of managing is that the 
>  measures be correct as  they will get what they measure.  If they measure 
>  lines of code, they'll get lines of code.  If they measure time signed on, 
>  they'll get lots of time signed on. 

Agreed.  Heck, project management is part of what I do.  I'm just saying that 
getting reliable figures off of the machine is not only impossible, but 
undesirable.  If your developers are properly involved with your users, it's 
not unusual for a developer to arrive, sign on, and then spend the rest of 
the day with the users doing nothing under their own ID on the system the 
rest of the day other than signing off.  Or they spend the whole day in 
meetings.

>  I'd wager good money that this inability to develop good measures is the 
>  major reason most managers need "face time" and  rebel at off-site 
>  workers.

Yep.  I've been fortunate.  Most of my clients set a reasonable schedule and 
measure it accurately, allowing me to resolve problems with vendors and train 
developers outside of the schedule, and realize that I get more done from 
home than I do in the office because users and developers think twice before 
calling me long distance with a minor problem.  Then again, the first thing I 
want to see when interviewing at a new client is the schedule, and I let them 
know up front if I find it unrealistic.  The downside is that I've never been 
hired by a client where I criticized the schedule.  The upside is that I've 
never missed a deadline unless it was due to an extraordinary (and measurable 
under the project parameters) circumstance.  I've also never been "that 
consultant that did such a lousy job" that gets blamed for everything when he 
leaves for the next five years...

JME,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-mail:  DAsmussen@aol.com

"Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they're _NOT_ out to get 
you." -- Anonymous
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