4 ms·

This depends very much on your position and the structure of your company. 5 minutes is fine if you're getting one a day. If you have dozens of ad-hoc interrupt

This depends very much on your position and the structure of your company. 5 minutes is fine if you're getting one a day. If you have dozens of ad-hoc interruptions every day, you're getting interrupted for hours. Placing these interruptions randomly throughout the day means you don't have any solid blocks of time in which to get work done.

bluGill 9y ago
This is one of the reasons that your best engineer should be on the least important project: everybody knows he can answer your complex questions fast, and they know what he is doing isn't very important so even if it can be definitively proven that your interruption caused his project to be late nobody will care.
- daveFNbuck 9y ago
  Why would your best engineer stay at your company if they're given unimportant projects and treated as tech support for your worst engineers?
  - singingboyo 9y ago
    I suspect it would be better worded as 'least urgent' project. Some of the most interesting projects I've done have been long-term things that didn't need to make it out for 6 or more months, and really only needed a month to implement - but they did really need to make it out at the end of those 6 months. With things like that, though, you can a) pull the engineer off for truly urgent 'done by Friday or we lose the customer(s)' issues, and b) losing some time due to interruptions isn't really world ending. For (a) to work you'd also probably want to stop having them interrupted.
    - daveFNbuck 9y ago
      That was how I was treated for the last year or so. It's not good for morale or retention. Even if I'm working on something that doesn't have a deadline, I still want to get work done every day. I'm not tech support and I won't stay in a position where that's my job.
  - robotresearcher 9y ago
    Because you pay them well and give them credit for all the projects they contribute to, even as an occasional consultant.
  - bluGill 9y ago
    Unimportant to the business is not the same is unimportant for other purposes. There are a lot of unimportant projects that are interesting to an engineer. Trying all the latest javascript framework is not important to the business, but but is your best person is free to try each fad, every once in a while he will be able to say "this one isn't just a fad we should use it". It is thus important for someone have time to do this. Trying some new tool is not important, but it might long term result in better quality if the tool turns out useful. Upgrading the CI system might not be important, but if you let it fall out of date you get into trouble. Stepping back from the day to day schedule allows the best engineer to focus thinking up a better solution. There are many things that are done "because we have always done it that way", but in fact the pressures of a 8-bit CPUs and limited memory 40 years ago drove that decision and there is a better way that modern CPUs could do now if only people weren't blinded by how it has always been done. The proof of concept will get management excited enough to make this the number one project, but right now they can't imagine the better way is even possible. (and the best engineer will sometimes discover the algorithm isn't actually possible) In short the unimportant projects the best engineers work on should be largely self directed. There is the following items that are a consideration so long as they don't take up too much time. (if they add up to 25% you need someone assigned to that problem) The best engineer is also free when a customer discovers a show stopper bug. If it is easy he can get the fix done in a couple days without interrupting the main team. The best engineer is free to tell marketing which ideas are possible and which is impossible. He can also help workout timelines. Thus ensuring that the next project is actually possible in the time given. The best engineer is there when sales says "I could make this big sale if only we had feature..." - some of those features can be done in a few hours and make a lot of money. Others take years and lose money - but the salesman has someone to ask before making a promise that cannot be met (that doesn't mean the saleman will ask) This is also a rotation - your second best developers will be playing "leapfrog" to the best and then your best developer gets rotated into a valuable assignment while the new best engineer gets to lead a project again. If your company has any size to the engineering team you can find those engineers who are self directed who will enjoy the lest important project
- therein 9y ago
  That's a very nice way to look at it but you're talking about a good engineer that's been with the company for a while to prefer mentoring others over just working on whatever they want.
  - daveFNbuck 9y ago
    Answering random on-demand questions isn't the same as mentoring. In order to mentor people, you need to be given long-term leadership roles where you work closely with a small number of people.

bluGill 9y ago

This is one of the reasons that your best engineer should be on the least important project: everybody knows he can answer your complex questions fast, and they know what he is doing isn't very important so even if it can be definitively proven that your interruption caused his project to be late nobody will care.

daveFNbuck 9y ago
Why would your best engineer stay at your company if they're given unimportant projects and treated as tech support for your worst engineers?
- singingboyo 9y ago
  I suspect it would be better worded as 'least urgent' project. Some of the most interesting projects I've done have been long-term things that didn't need to make it out for 6 or more months, and really only needed a month to implement - but they did really need to make it out at the end of those 6 months. With things like that, though, you can a) pull the engineer off for truly urgent 'done by Friday or we lose the customer(s)' issues, and b) losing some time due to interruptions isn't really world ending. For (a) to work you'd also probably want to stop having them interrupted.
  - daveFNbuck 9y ago
    That was how I was treated for the last year or so. It's not good for morale or retention. Even if I'm working on something that doesn't have a deadline, I still want to get work done every day. I'm not tech support and I won't stay in a position where that's my job.
- robotresearcher 9y ago
  Because you pay them well and give them credit for all the projects they contribute to, even as an occasional consultant.
- bluGill 9y ago
  Unimportant to the business is not the same is unimportant for other purposes. There are a lot of unimportant projects that are interesting to an engineer. Trying all the latest javascript framework is not important to the business, but but is your best person is free to try each fad, every once in a while he will be able to say "this one isn't just a fad we should use it". It is thus important for someone have time to do this. Trying some new tool is not important, but it might long term result in better quality if the tool turns out useful. Upgrading the CI system might not be important, but if you let it fall out of date you get into trouble. Stepping back from the day to day schedule allows the best engineer to focus thinking up a better solution. There are many things that are done "because we have always done it that way", but in fact the pressures of a 8-bit CPUs and limited memory 40 years ago drove that decision and there is a better way that modern CPUs could do now if only people weren't blinded by how it has always been done. The proof of concept will get management excited enough to make this the number one project, but right now they can't imagine the better way is even possible. (and the best engineer will sometimes discover the algorithm isn't actually possible) In short the unimportant projects the best engineers work on should be largely self directed. There is the following items that are a consideration so long as they don't take up too much time. (if they add up to 25% you need someone assigned to that problem) The best engineer is also free when a customer discovers a show stopper bug. If it is easy he can get the fix done in a couple days without interrupting the main team. The best engineer is free to tell marketing which ideas are possible and which is impossible. He can also help workout timelines. Thus ensuring that the next project is actually possible in the time given. The best engineer is there when sales says "I could make this big sale if only we had feature..." - some of those features can be done in a few hours and make a lot of money. Others take years and lose money - but the salesman has someone to ask before making a promise that cannot be met (that doesn't mean the saleman will ask) This is also a rotation - your second best developers will be playing "leapfrog" to the best and then your best developer gets rotated into a valuable assignment while the new best engineer gets to lead a project again. If your company has any size to the engineering team you can find those engineers who are self directed who will enjoy the lest important project
therein 9y ago
That's a very nice way to look at it but you're talking about a good engineer that's been with the company for a while to prefer mentoring others over just working on whatever they want.
- daveFNbuck 9y ago
  Answering random on-demand questions isn't the same as mentoring. In order to mentor people, you need to be given long-term leadership roles where you work closely with a small number of people.