Can I Get Credit For That?

In the last few weeks, I’ve been asked the same question over and over.

Can I get credit for that?

I’ve been consistent in my position that nobody outside the immediate team cares about the tasks and the hours associated with them. Nobody is keeping score.  Nobody wants to give you credit for anything, unless it’s going to make or save the company money.  So many people are living in a reality of years ago, when productivity was being measured by the hours worked.  I will ask a team to make and meet their commitments.  But the question won’t be “will you work 40 hours this week”.  The question is “can you complete this capability, this sprint or this release”.  It’s not about how busy you are or your utilization.  I care about throughput.

We focus on outcomes over activities now.

• You need to do analysis work. Do you get credit for that? No.
• You need to do design work. Do you get credit for that? No.
• You need to write acceptance tests. Do you get credit for that? No.
• You need to make changes to the system, demonstrate those changes to a customer, and get the customer to accept those changes.  Do you get credit for that? Yes! Yes, you do!

Focus on that last one. Of all of it, none of it has value, but it may be necessary. Focus on demonstrating value to the customer.

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