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Rarely, because incentives encourage gaming the system. In sales, it is fairly easy to make the game benefit both the sales folks and the business because sales
by codingdave 5mo ago
Rarely, because incentives encourage gaming the system. In sales, it is fairly easy to make the game benefit both the sales folks and the business because sales directly drives revenue. Game it however you want, everyone wins. But software does not directly translate into revenue, so once you start setting up incentives, gaming that system can completely derail the actual business goals unless you are exceedingly careful about it.
The only time I've seen sales-like incentives work is in hourly consulting shops, where you can incentivize increasing the billable hours. In that case, the software work does directly translate to revenue.
- didgetmaster 5mo agoReminds me of a Dilbert cartoon where the pointy haired boss tells his team they were going to start paying the developers to fix bugs. Wally tells everyone that he is going to code himself a minivan.
- Someone 5mo ago> In sales, it is fairly easy to make the game benefit both the sales folks and the business because sales directly drives revenue. Game it however you want, everyone wins Not even that. Hit your top sales target for the year in November, or won’t be able to hit the next higher target? Then, try to delay your customer from signing that new contract until early January, so that those sales contribute to next year’s target. Need a sale to hit your target? Quote a lower maintenance contract, promise a feature that doesn’t exist, etc.