Text File

Aucbvax.2472 fa.works utzoo!decvax!ucbvax!works Wed Jul 29 19:19:03 1981 Collected responses on performance monitoring >From WorkS-REQUEST@MIT-AI Wed Jul 29 17:30:57 1981 WorkS collected responses on performance monitoring

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: 27 Jul 1981 0922-PDT From: Tom Wadlow <TAW SU-AI AT> Subject: Keystroke monitoring.

It seems to me that for most keyboard related jobs (Document entry being a notable exception) keystrokes per hour (or your favorite sampling period) are a very poor metric for produc- tivity. For example, when I find myself using a computer system that permits it, I create a personal environment on that machine to aid in doing the task at hand, as well as helping things in general. This usually involves automating everyday processes (Compile this and if there were no errors, ship it over there, link and start it) that eat up LOTS of keystrokes were I to do them manually. Thus, my keystroke count goes up at first, then drops fairly sharply as my environment becomes available. After some period, I might be evaluated on keystrokes alone as being unproductive, when in fact I might be turning out more than the guy who is taking five hour lunches.

Clearly a metric of some sort is needed to measure productivity, but a *simple* metric should be suspected of not presenting a picture of the real world.

------------------------------

Date: 27 July 1981 22:08 edt From: SSteinberg.SoftArts at MIT-Multics Subject: Re: The office of the future is the factory of the past

In the book "In the Name of Efficiency" it appears that organizing DP workers into neat job categories resulted in a twofold increase in programming costs in terms of lines of code per constant 1965 dollar! Basically management (*) feels that the illusion of control is more important than productivity.

Everyone must remember what the managementification of the military did in Vietnam. It broke down morale in the rank and file and turned the entire "noble enterprise" (^) into a body count battlefield.

(*) There are exceptions. (^) Ronald Reagan's term.

------------------------------

Date: 27 Jul 1981 08:23 PDT From: Pugh.ES at PARC-MAXC Subject: Re: The office of the future is the factory of the past

wm at unc --

Nothing really seems to substitute for motivation does it?

/Eric

------------------------------

End of WorkS collected responses on performance monitoring **********************************************************

----------------------------------------------------------------- gopher://quux.org/ conversion by John Goerzen <jgoerzen@complete.org> of http://communication.ucsd.edu/A-News/

This Usenet Oldnews Archive article may be copied and distributed freely, provided:

1. There is no money collected for the text(s) of the articles.

2. The following notice remains appended to each copy:

The Usenet Oldnews Archive: Compilation Copyright (C) 1981, 1996 Bruce Jones, Henry Spencer, David Wiseman.