Comments on: Is the Most Productive Employee Really the Most Productive? http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2009/05/is-the-most-productive-employee-really-the-most-productive.html Management, especially good management, is hard to do. This blog is for people who want to think about how they manage people, projects, and risk. Fri, 18 May 2012 15:02:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: How to Handle Extraordinarily Productive Employees | Thought Clusters http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2009/05/is-the-most-productive-employee-really-the-most-productive.html/comment-page-1#comment-50690 How to Handle Extraordinarily Productive Employees | Thought Clusters Wed, 17 Jun 2009 20:20:24 +0000 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/?p=8714#comment-50690 [...] Rothman considers a management problem where a team has an extraordinarily productive employee in a team of average employees and suggests [...] [...] Rothman considers a management problem where a team has an extraordinarily productive employee in a team of average employees and suggests [...]

]]> By: Dmitry Zdanovich http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2009/05/is-the-most-productive-employee-really-the-most-productive.html/comment-page-1#comment-49039 Dmitry Zdanovich Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:24:30 +0000 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/?p=8714#comment-49039 I believe that many people were on a project where were a few really productive developers - they did much more than others (really did - quality didn't suffer). And it didn't threaten overall performance - quite the opposite. These highly productive people may even have helped other developers to set higher internal goals. And total impact on performance was really positive - personal high productivity + increased productivity of other members. Team which consists of unproductive members is unlikely to be productive as a whole. It's a smart move to create team from productive members (of course, don't forget about team dynamics and interaction) and make it a productive team. It makes sense to analyze what consequences are in every specific case. And if you've discovered that a team member who seems very productive in fact is a bottleneck or negatively impacts overall performance - take immediate measures. I believe that many people were on a project where were a few really productive developers – they did much more than others (really did – quality didn’t suffer). And it didn’t threaten overall performance – quite the opposite. These highly productive people may even have helped other developers to set higher internal goals. And total impact on performance was really positive – personal high productivity + increased productivity of other members.
Team which consists of unproductive members is unlikely to be productive as a whole. It’s a smart move to create team from productive members (of course, don’t forget about team dynamics and interaction) and make it a productive team.
It makes sense to analyze what consequences are in every specific case. And if you’ve discovered that a team member who seems very productive in fact is a bottleneck or negatively impacts overall performance – take immediate measures.

]]> By: abby, the hacker chick blog http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2009/05/is-the-most-productive-employee-really-the-most-productive.html/comment-page-1#comment-46141 abby, the hacker chick blog Wed, 20 May 2009 14:59:57 +0000 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/?p=8714#comment-46141 Johanna, This post has been bouncing around in my brain the last 2 weeks, not sure what to do with it. But then I'm finishing up my latest blog, which looks at research into errors in aviation and hospitals and they found that errors tend to occur most often when the senior person is operating or flying and I'm thinking... maybe it's all related? I can't figure out how to get link backs working? But I linked back to here with the question of whether the same might be true in software development: http://www.thehackerchickblog.com/2009/05/plane-crashes-software-failures-and.html Johanna,

This post has been bouncing around in my brain the last 2 weeks, not sure what to do with it. But then I’m finishing up my latest blog, which looks at research into errors in aviation and hospitals and they found that errors tend to occur most often when the senior person is operating or flying and I’m thinking… maybe it’s all related?

I can’t figure out how to get link backs working? But I linked back to here with the question of whether the same might be true in software development: http://www.thehackerchickblog.com/2009/05/plane-crashes-software-failures-and.html

]]> By: Winston Barlow http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2009/05/is-the-most-productive-employee-really-the-most-productive.html/comment-page-1#comment-45335 Winston Barlow Wed, 13 May 2009 16:20:25 +0000 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/?p=8714#comment-45335 Unproductive employees are certainly not going to make any business grow. I think that management skills are very important in managing employees and getting rid of the deadwood. This article is quite interesting: http://www.impactexecutives.com/for-clients/client-successes/using-management-development-skills.html Unproductive employees are certainly not going to make any business grow. I think that management skills are very important in managing employees and getting rid of the deadwood. This article is quite interesting: http://www.impactexecutives.com/for-clients/client-successes/using-management-development-skills.html

]]> By: Harry Jone http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2009/05/is-the-most-productive-employee-really-the-most-productive.html/comment-page-1#comment-45301 Harry Jone Wed, 13 May 2009 04:30:01 +0000 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/?p=8714#comment-45301 Totally agree with you. In my team, some people once the best one however he lost the passion and work hard. Totally agree with you. In my team, some people once the best one however he lost the passion and work hard.

]]> By: Terry http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2009/05/is-the-most-productive-employee-really-the-most-productive.html/comment-page-1#comment-45197 Terry Mon, 11 May 2009 18:50:19 +0000 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/?p=8714#comment-45197 It's important to remember that the 'genius' coder who is so productive may be introducing many more errors to the code base than he does producing working and maintainable code. Ask yourself how much time does he or the team spend fixing code that he worked on? Is the code completed FAST AND working RELIABLY? Food for thought... It’s important to remember that the ‘genius’ coder who is so productive may be introducing many more errors to the code base than he does producing working and maintainable code. Ask yourself how much time does he or the team spend fixing code that he worked on? Is the code completed FAST AND working RELIABLY? Food for thought…

]]> By: Andy Wagner http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2009/05/is-the-most-productive-employee-really-the-most-productive.html/comment-page-1#comment-44792 Andy Wagner Thu, 07 May 2009 23:33:28 +0000 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/?p=8714#comment-44792 This reminds me of the illustration in a post from John Shook's blog at LEI.org: http://www.lean.org/images/shook_column_kaizen_example.jpg Your superstar might be rowing faster than everybody else in the boat, but it doesn't get you anywhere faster. This reminds me of the illustration in a post from John Shook’s blog at LEI.org:
http://www.lean.org/images/shook_column_kaizen_example.jpg

Your superstar might be rowing faster than everybody else in the boat, but it doesn’t get you anywhere faster.

]]> By: Scot Mcphee http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2009/05/is-the-most-productive-employee-really-the-most-productive.html/comment-page-1#comment-44717 Scot Mcphee Thu, 07 May 2009 03:42:23 +0000 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/?p=8714#comment-44717 I sgree with Dave Smith's comment above. The big red flag is the weekend (or overnight) re-write. This is not co-operative to the team. And the reason it continues is the fault of the manager, for mistaking the cowboy for a great developer. It's fairly simple to have rules like, "no rewrites without team permission" and other ways to handle the cowboys. Good developers make their whole team they are in look good. I sgree with Dave Smith’s comment above. The big red flag is the weekend (or overnight) re-write. This is not co-operative to the team. And the reason it continues is the fault of the manager, for mistaking the cowboy for a great developer.

It’s fairly simple to have rules like, “no rewrites without team permission” and other ways to handle the cowboys. Good developers make their whole team they are in look good.

]]> By: johanna http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2009/05/is-the-most-productive-employee-really-the-most-productive.html/comment-page-1#comment-44714 johanna Thu, 07 May 2009 03:28:13 +0000 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/?p=8714#comment-44714 Doc, you're right. I did. Sigh. Doc, you’re right. I did. Sigh.

]]> By: Doc Doc http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2009/05/is-the-most-productive-employee-really-the-most-productive.html/comment-page-1#comment-44705 Doc Doc Thu, 07 May 2009 02:15:40 +0000 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/?p=8714#comment-44705 You said --"It means the most number of features per unit time per team." You meant - "It means the most number of tested and working features per unit time per team." You said –”It means the most number of features per unit time per team.”

You meant – “It means the most number of tested and working features per unit time per team.”

]]>