Re:How Not to Do Time Tracking for Software Developers
by WorldMaker on Tuesday February 19, 2019 @01:55PM
(#19201681)
Some companies just want a panopticon. Many of them want to micro-manage, and have weird ideas that software development is a direct correlation between time and effort.
My current company it makes sense to try my best to the hour/half-hour, because we're consultants and that's how we bill our clients.
A past employer for me was the worst of both worlds because they had a consultant's mindset towards billable hours having been born of a law firm, but not the consultant's approach to billing software development work. We were classified purely as "overhead" and not allowed to "bill" our (internal) clients. Meanwhile, despite starting life as a law firm it was by that point mostly a call center, and call staff to lofty law firm partners look like babies that need a strict panopticon.
My current company it makes sense to try my best to the hour/half-hour, because we're consultants and that's how we bill our clients.
A past employer for me was the worst of both worlds because they had a consultant's mindset towards billable hours having been born of a law firm, but not the consultant's approach to billing software development work. We were classified purely as "overhead" and not allowed to "bill" our (internal) clients. Meanwhile, despite starting life as a law firm it was by that point mostly a call center, and call staff to lofty law firm partners look like babies that need a strict panopticon.