4 ms·

I'm coming from a large company mindset, but I disagree. We're working on projects that are too big for a single person, no matter how brilliant. Working well a

by e28eta 13y ago

I'm coming from a large company mindset, but I disagree. We're working on projects that are too big for a single person, no matter how brilliant. Working well as a team is how we ship features. Being predictable in our output is important to the business, because they have plans for the project/feature that we'll work on next. There are marketing and customer support teams working with us who also value our ability to deliver what we've promised, and when. There are customers who need features by a specific date. I think the best engineers are the ones who improve the output of the entire team. Just like a good manager can improve the productivity of their engineers.

sheepmullet 13y ago
A team can absorb the natural peaks and lulls that accompany high performance far better than an individual can. If you need everybody to be operating at 100% week on week in order to hit your deliverables then you have over promised and introduced an incredible amount of risk into your projects. As a manager, if you care about the productivity and general well being of your team then you will be promising a max of around 70% team effort. Managing the expectations of other teams and departments is part of being a decent manager. Spend two weeks sharpening the ax and then another cutting down the tree? No, the average company would rather you spend six, or even twelve, weeks chopping away with your blunt ax.