[time-nuts] Help with HP 8640B generator

[Neon John]

On Sat, 6 Sep 2008 07:09:33 -0400, "Bob Paddock" <bob.paddock at gmail.com>
wrote:

>> The cubicle?
>
>Anti-Productivity Pods: Cubicles as Dilbert so astutely noted.
>
>"For my money the most important work on software productivity in the
>last 20 years
> is DeMarco and Lister's Peopleware (1987 Dorset House Publishing, NY
>NY). 

Peopleware became my management handbook.  I can't tell you how many copies
I've purchased and handed out to clients.


> Surprisingly, none of the factors you'd expect to matter correlated to the best
> and worst performers. Even experience mattered little, as long as the
>programmers
> had been working for at least 6 months. They did find a very strong correlation
> between the office environment and team performance. Needless
>interruptions yielded
> poor performance. The best teams had private (read "quiet") offices
>and phones with
> "off" switches. Their study suggests that quiet time saves vast
>amounts of money.

One of the most significant findings, one I took to heart in my shop, was that
it took about 30 minutes of recovery to get back to the state the person was
in when he was interrupted.  "Interrupted" is anything that interrupts the
train of thought, be it a phone, someone walking in or someone cutting up
elsewhere in the cube farm.

>
> Think about this. The almost minor tweak of getting some quiet time can,
> according to their data, multiply your productivity by 260%!
> That's an astonishing result. For the same salary your boss pays you now,
> he'd get essentially 2.6 of you." -- Jack Ganssle in The Embedded Muse #25.

I found that book right after I hired on with Dunn & Bradstreet to manage
their new sales automation software development group.  I implemented all the
recommendations and then some.  The door to our cube farm got a cipher lock
and no one outside our group had the combo.  That stopped the steady stream of
company salesmen and testing personnel who used to drift in any time they
wanted.

I had the PBX reprogrammed to give each person in my group an "off" button
that sent all calls either to reception or voice mail.  I equipped each
cubicle with a dorm room refrigerator and small Mr. Coffee.  I paid to have
them stocked out of my discretionary budget. I'd have put a head in each cube
if that had been possible.  

Walkmans and other headphone-based entertainment was encouraged but no devices
that made noise were allowed.  Not even speakers on the developers' PCs.  No
meetings were allowed in the cube farm and voices above a whisper were banned.
The cube farm was ringed with small conference rooms where teams could go to
meet and coordinate.  I had pink noise generators installed which masked the
normal noises such as chairs bumping into desks and file drawers opening and
closing.

It took a few weeks for my group to come on board but then they loved it. They
were self-policing.  Anyone who made noise or otherwise disturbed the
environment was quickly set upon by those disturbed.

My group's productivity soared by all measures.  My guys were happy campers.
Turnover was nil.  Yet for the 2 years that I stayed at the company, we were
under constant assault from whiners and malingerers elsewhere in the company
because we were getting "special treatment".  After two years of fending off
that crap, I'd had enough.  I took the best of my team and went back into
private practice.

John
--
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.neon-john.com
http://www.johndearmond.com <-- best little blog on the net!
Tellico Plains, Occupied TN
Some people are like a Slinky .. not really good for anything
 but you still smile 
when you shove them down the stairs.