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225 points todsacerdoti | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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js8 ◴[] No.46184503[source]
What the article suggests is basically Kanban. It's the most effective SW development method, and similar scheduling system (dispatch queue) is used by operating systems in computers. However, management doesn't want Kanban, because they want to promise things to customers.

You can make good estimates, but it takes extra time researching and planning. So you will spend cycles estimating instead of maximizing throughput, and to reduce risk, plan is usually padded up so you lose extra time there according to the Parkinson's law. IME a (big) SW company prefers to spend all these cycles, even though technically it is irrational (that's why we don't do it in the operating systems).

replies(2): >>46185067 #>>46186973 #
1. namdnay ◴[] No.46185067[source]
> technically it is irrational

Only if your company operates in a vacuum, without investors or customers

replies(2): >>46185205 #>>46189369 #
2. poguemahoney ◴[] No.46185205[source]
As an investor, I don't like a investment that throws away 10-30% of its resources, perpetually lowers morale except among the least creative and misses opportunities because their competition is faster.
3. js8 ◴[] No.46189369[source]
Investing or buying into something new and unknown is by itself not a rational act (to the extent the thing is novel).

IMHO rationality (optimization) only makes sense relative to a well-defined goal.