In the conversation at slashdot about Why Crunch Mode Doesn’t Work, there is discussion of the root causes of Crunch Mode: management incompetence; estimating incompetence; the nature of games; feeping creaturitis (OK, they really said “feature creep”); the marketplace (and attendant hard deadlines); previous success using crunch mode; late product specs; inadequate or missing product specs; failure to update schedules; difficulty of estimation; a combination of hard deadline and hard feature set; lack of management training; developer desire to be ‘leet’; and inexperienced staff.
I’ve experienced most of these, and while I agree that all of these problems can contribute to the inappropriate or extended use of extra hours, I disagree that any of these are the root cause of most crunches.
I think the ultimate top-down driver of long-term crunch is a combination of testosterone and fear.
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