Do Software Projects Still Depend on Unpaid Overtime?
by Ed Yourdon During a project management seminar in Toronto last week, I had a very interesting discussion with the other participants on the subject of overtime. I have the strong opinion that many of today’s so-called RAD projects succeed because (a) they’re relatively short, usually lasting no more than 3-6 months, and (b) they often involve interesting technology, such as client-server or Internet/Web. Because of the glamorous technology, the project manager doesn’t even have to ask the project team to work overtime; most of the technical team members are young, unmarried, workaholic techno-nerds, and they would happily work 16 hours a day with the latest version of Java or Visual Basic. Of course, if the project went on forever, team members would eventually burn out or collapse; but if the project is only 3-6 months long, they can tolerate the long work hours without too much physical or psychic stress.
