[文摘]无事可做的工程师

项目管理艺术（The Art of Project Management）P122

I've argued with other managers on this very point. They couldn't imagine not allowing their team to code at full speed all the time, regardless of whether the programmers understood the direction the project was going. If the programmers were idle, then the project must be idle, right? Wrong. There is hypocrisy here: if the programmer's time is so valuable, the use of it should be well planned. "What will the programmers do?", they'd ask me. And I'd say, "They will wait for a plan worthy of their time, or help the team to find it."

我曾和其他经理人就这点争论过。他们无法想象，不让团队随时全力撰写程序代码的情况，无论程序员究竟是否了解项目的前进方向。如果程序员空闲，项目就必然闲置，对吗？错。这里有个伪善的说法：如果程序员的时间如此宝贵，在使用上就应充分被计划。他们问我：“那程序员要做什么？”而我说：“他们要等待值得他们付出时间的计划，或者协助团队找出来。”