The Art of Micromanaging Software Engineers! Here's the thing: as programmers we sometimes have a bad day. Sometimes a bad week or two. Sometimes there is unre

The Art of Micromanaging Software Engineers! Here's the thing: as programmers we sometimes have a bad day. Sometimes a bad week or two. Sometimes there is unresolved ambiguity in how something needs to be done that we tend to procrastinate on it until it becomes clear. When you're working through an agile/XP backlog - a never-ending backlog mind you - you're expected to produce at a consistent cadence, not much different from laying brick after brick, but unlike construction, this one is an infinite pool of uninteresting work. This is common in consulting work. Agile and XP were created by consultants to create predictability in delivery. It makes sense for that context - clients are often far removed from the consultants, there is no intrinsic alignment between their incentives, and being external people there is always an information gap in what is best for the company and whether the contractors are making actual progress. So you need a way to smoothen this out. Transparency, constant communication, a structured process, consistent cadence, measurable metrics, and most importantly number of hours with your bum on the seat. When consulting companies start out, there is a distinct messaging on their websites: "we don't want to be just consultants, we want to be an integral part of your team" or suchlike. See, we also want meaningful work, we want to truly participate in your business. But as consulting companies mature they realize this is not a feasible approach at scale. While external messaging might not change, internally they realize the business is about selling X number of hours in a year per consultant, with a percentage of their earnings as your profit margin. To make this work, you need Agile/XP. You need to bring Taylorism back into the world of programming. That is just the systemic incentive of this sort of business. Companies that fail to realize this and change accordingly (the idealists) go out of business very fast. Others thrive. Within this system it is still possible to have meaningful work for developers (I've worked in such companies, and I've enjoyed it). But if you have a micro-managing PM like in this article, then better run for the hills or you'll find out hating IT and fully burnt out in a few years.