Hiring pace

[antoviaque (Xavier Antoviaque)]

I have moved the discussion to its current thread - it’s usually easier to follow conversations than on one giant thread.

@adolfo

client work is higher priority than accelerated epics, especially for Serenity. However, we should also take the long-term view: tackling the accelerated epics raises the chances that Serenity will continue to be able to work on new clients in the future, so we’ll want to help where we can. (…)

[W]e should strive to do our part and try to get enough capacity to push work forward on at least some accelerated epic(s), and not stick exclusively to billable hours.

Thanks for recaping the outcome of that discussion.

@adolfo

there are many variables to synchronize, many people, many blockers; it’s a mess for everyone.

It is , indeed, quite a mess. Synchronization is required between different roles, but it isn’t always clear how it should happen, and when. Such as, markedly, between Epic Planning Manager and Recruitment Manager.

What could help making it less messy? Could a better workflow/process help here? We are designing a workflow manager currently - this could be a good area to work on a workflow for? CC @nizar @Ali

@adolfo

This is basically admitting we can’t predict how much capacity will be necessary until it is too late to hire - or too late to fire - anyone. This is exactly why Xavier asked for a capacity buffer to begin with: but what should that buffer be? As we’ve been discussing (here and elsewhere) there are significant hidden costs to hiring: from creating enough tasks, finding enough mentors, to the sustainability concerns I mentioned earlier.

For the number of new hires at a given time, it does make sense to keep it to something manageable. Generally one core team member should be able to care for one newcomer, no? If the newcomer isn’t able to make it worthwhile for a core team member to mentor him/her and create/find tasks, then maybe either that newcomer isn’t a good fit, or not enough time is spent thinking about ways to delegate work?

Note in passing that hiring pace (number of newcomers at a time in a cell) is related to capacity buffer (the number of hours not allocated), but they aren’t the same. Ideally, a cell would keep enough capacity buffer, to not need to hire so fast that it would exceed the cell’s maximum hiring pace. That’s still difficult, but gives more time – and it provides an incentive for cells to take on accelerated epics, as the more accelerated work, the more capacity buffer the cell has, potentially allowing the cell to get contracts we might otherwise have refused, like the Singapore lead: https://forum.opencraft.com/t/falcon-resourcing-for-2021-22/1042/23 .

Does anyone want to take a task to update the handbook with the outcome of this conversation?