Tag: rework

Go to Sleep

This entry is from some notes I’ve taken while reading the book Rework.  Considering my recent write up “Don’t Give me Rework Refusal!” one may consider me a supporter of the ideas presented in the book.  Out of all the books I’ve read recently, this one is definitely on the top of the heap of “things to do to succeed”.  Great book; simple, to the point, great real world examples, and shows a keen understanding of the larger business world as well.

Go to Sleep

In the section titled Go to Sleep I thought of some additional stories and events that I’ve experienced in the past.  These experiences helped me to realize the difference between me on good sleep and me on bad sleep.

Push These Chairs

One of my team leads for a team I worked with years ago stated to me, “If you come in tired, you’re useless to me, except I could get you to push chairs around.”  We had a good working camaraderie so I just laughed it off, until I came in tired one day.  Eric P. saw me plugging along yet could tell I was kind of in a dirge.  He said, “Hey Adron, see those chairs?  Could you go move those chairs over to that part of the room?”  I looked at him quizzically thinking, “I’m a software developer, you want me to move chairs?”  Then I thought back to what he had said and I realized I was tired and it showed.

🙁  Not cool on my part, I was bummed.

I realized what he was making a point of and asked if I should just head out and get some sleep and come back nito the office?  He said that would probably be best, as the team really needed to be 100%.  We were all tired a little bit, but crunching and coming in the next day sloppy tired wasn’t helping project velocity at all.  So off I went to get some sleep.

In the book Rework the writers point out some key facts of the tired:

  • Stubbornness
  • Lack of Creativity
  • Diminished Morale
  • Irritability

I wanted to add a few myself:

  • Negatively Contagious
  • Misdirected
  • Oft Confused

A negatively contagious individual affects those around with a bad vibe.  Often making even those that aren’t tired, feel and act like it.  It makes the day of work more difficult and diminishes their morale as well as the tired individual’s.

A misdirected individual fits into the whole “useless” category.  Sure, they can move chairs around as my Team Lead Eric P. proved, but beyond that a tired programmer isn’t a programmer, they’re a chair mover.

A oft confused person comes to work tired, attends meetings or other high cost events during the day and adds to the confusion instead of adding clarity.  This affects these high cost events by making them even more high cost and less useful.

So if you heed the advice in the book, which Eric P. and I reiterate, GET SOME SLEEP!!!

Don’t Give me Rework Refusal!

Over the last few weeks I’ve seen a few comments regarding rework. One of those comments was Julie Booth’s (@uxsuccess) comment on Twitter regarding rework,

“Do not fear rework!!”

That kicked me off with a response of,

“Do not fear rework!! /via @uxsuccess so true, plz plz don’t cower before rework!!! :). Listen to @uxsuccess!“

Then just recently I stumbled onto a book I’ve been meaning to read called Rework.  This book is written by the crew at 37signals.  This company is best known for SaaS Offerings Basecamp, Highrise, Campfire, and Backpack.  All of them created with high quality, solid UX (User eXperience), probably great code quality, maintainability, and the list of goodness goes on.  In addition, the other thing that 37signals is widely known for is their efforts around Ruby on Rails (created by DHH @dhh).

Rework is a fundamental requirement to actually getting an elegant solution.  It might seem chaotic or disconnected at first, but it quickly becomes a vastly superior way of doing things instead of the “Do it once, do it right the first time” nonsense.  Things need to change, doing things right the first time is almost impossible anyway.  That is why you practice playing guitar before becoming a virtuoso, you learn to hammer before becoming a carpenter, you sketch and draw before becoming an architect, and the list goes on.

Don’t expect perfection, expect creation.  That’s what I’d say.  If you can’t tell, I agree with the Ruby on Rails mindset, with a lot of what DHH/@dhh writes, and I especially respect what 37signals has accomplished and the revolutionary business ideas in the book Rework.

These types of ideas – simple rework and the open minded approach to rework – makes a business faster, more agile, and responsive to their customers’ needs.  These ideas, these mentalities are what have created great companies in the past and will build great companies in the future.  The companies that suffer the traditional approaches and mindsets are at significant risk of being eliminated from the market altogether.

There are many others out there also, that push these types of ideas and mentalities around rework, refactoring, and agile practices.  If you haven’t checked out who 37signals is, the book Rework, or Ruby on Rails you should stop whatever you’re doing and find out about this company and its products.  Especially find out how their products were built with business agility in mind, with a strong dose of Agile ideals.  With that I bid adieu for the day.  Happy coding, and don’t fear the rework.