rjamestaylor's Journal: Rethinking Strategic Advantage

We have a six month cycle for many reasons. First off, and most important to me personally, it is just the right length so that I do not kill myself. The holidays are nicely spaced for me. Since I am project leader, I must not be permitted to go insane.

Theo de Raddt

Instead of "release early and release often" Theo de Raadt has a 6 month release schedule so he can have a life. What a jerk!

Kidding. But it made me think -- why haven't I had a life now that I'm a reasonably well-paid lead developer for commercial projects? It's because there is always a looming deadline that I'm rush-rush-rushing to meet. Why have I allowed myself to fall into the spin-cycle of development? Strategic advantage.

In university I was taught that technology's high cost and risk was justified by the potential for strategic advantage over competitors. Examples from the Just-In-Time inventory control of the Japanese automakers to the (then) state-of-the-art real-time inventory control systems of FritoLay emphasized the benefits of investing in technology...as long as that investment produced a strategic advantage (SA) for your company. Unsaid was the assumption that you'd have to be the first with the technology in place in order to have such an SA. So, the high cost of technological development was justified by the expediency of providing a SA. Expediency is assumed in this model.

Much of software soution marketing revolves around the notion of speed. From concept to deployment...fast. Microsoft is pushing it's .NET as a timesaver. Oracle sells a 65-day ecommerce soution. Heck, I recommend Perl because of the speed of development.

In the midst of this speed-talk out went my life. I haven't had a 40-, 60-, or even 80-hour work-week in a couple years.

A few years ago I was involved in radio broadcasting, both as a show producer (2 different daily broadcasts: one live 30 minute broadcast; the other requring 40+ hours of editing per 30 minute daily broadcast) and as a on-air operator / program director. We were constantly running to meet deadlines. Chaos and confusion were the norm. It was a way of life. But there was a definite reason: time stops for no one. Sure, better production planning help reduce the confusion but there seemed to alweays be a clamor right before the mics went live. When my production group began a venture into video documentaries, all sembalance of 'life' went out the window. I began staying at the studios over consecutive days to meet deadline pressures. My family life consisted of phone calls home. That's when I left broadcasting for the safe haven of software development.

Now I find myself in an increasingly high-pressure position. Surely it has a lot to do with me, my personality, etc., but there is this "got to have it now" assumption that has been bred into not only me but everyone who learned to justify technological costs as a strategic advantage, rather than just the cost of doing business.

I hope in the next few months to reorganize my work schedule, reduce my commute time (currently an hour each way), etc. But I also plan on educating my clients that their project is not worth my life. Yet I know my first student will need to be: me.