I think crunch mode does work.

Wooo, who through something at me!?

Here is MY definition/situation of crunch mode:
Schedule has slipped (and the following is key) at the "end" of
the schedule. (We are not 1/3 along the way, we are in the
straight-a-way and heading for the finish line).
Pending features are well defined.
Order of feature implementation is defined.
Team is excited for the chance to deliver.
It is the teams choice and idea to crunch, not some manager's
idea.
We enter crunch mode!
After we deliver everyone gets the following friday and monday off
for a four day weekend!

Crunch mode may work under those circumstances (and others)
but we all know it is not sustainable.

My fear is that management says, "look, they CAN work 60 hours
a week, they COULD do it all the time if they were dedicated. WE
do 60 hours a week in MEETINGS alone!"

Another concern is that if we enter this well defined crunch mode
and we fail, morale takes a big hit. After crunch mode people are
tired and if you didn't succeed you have to keep working. Tired,
low morale, tempers will flare, communication will decrease,
and trouble is looming. So, with the risk of failure and the results
of the failure one should carefully weigh the consequences of
entering crunch mode.

I didn't read the article yet. sorry.

Geoff

--- In extremeprogramming@yahoogroups.com, William Pietri
<william@s...> wrote:
> Here's a nice article explaining why crunch mode is generally a
very bad
> idea:
>
> http://www.igda.org/articles/erobinson_crunch.php
>
> It's focused on game development, but the lessons are broadly
> applicable, and he has a number of nice references to studies
and
> historical examples.
>
> I think there's one important point that isn't in the article.
Perhaps
> that's because it applies less to games. But for the rest of us, I
think
> it's important to remember that there's a key difference
between
> manufacturing widgets and making software: bad widgets
ship, but bad
> software stays around, impeding future progress. That makes
high quality
> much more important in our world, just as surely as a failure to
wash
> 10% of your dishes each meal eventually leads to an unusable
kitchen.
>
> William