The Loaner

CategoryAntiPattern

Problem: A project is visibly in trouble.

Context: The most visible symptom of project trouble is that it is behind schedule. More troubling is that the rate of schedule slippage is geometric or exponential -- it gets worse with every report. That it is behind schedule for reasons other than lack of resource is ignored.

Forces:

• Project is "too important" to simply kill.
• Everyone seems busy, therefore the problem is that "everyone" isn't big enough.
• Project plans are expressed in "person-days," suggesting that "persons" and "days" are interchangeable.

Solution: Management finds one or more resources that are available, and "loans" them to the problem project.

Resulting Context: BrooksLaw causes the project schedule to inflate out of control, until it is either killed or radically scaled back.

Rationale: Nobody loans useful resources, therefore TheLoaner is going to be someone who is "available" largely because they are not currently solving someone else's problems. Unless there is a lack of problems to solve, this is usually because TheLoaner is under-trained, incapable, or otherwise unable to be productive.

AntiPatternAntidote?:

• Don't accept TheLoaner blindly -- make sure they can actually impact schedule.
• Negotiate long loan lengths to better "amortize" the fixed costs of the loan of training and bringing the new person up to speed.
• TheLoaner's work must be properly documented, because he won't be around when it breaks.
• Assign them a "stunt double" to work closely with (see PairProgramming).

References: Special Team Members, The Smalltalk Report, February, 1996.

See http://www.bytesmiths.com/Publications/9602SpecialTeam.html

Author: JanSteinman and BarbaraYates, February, 1995.