Speaking not so much to the deadline in particular, but to the concept of
"rules versus judgments"....
--On lørdag, november 26, 2005 11:39:22 -0800 Dave Crocker
<dhc2(_at_)dcrocker(_dot_)net> wrote:
To begin:
1. A problem working group is not fixed by imposing arbitrary rules and
deadlines on it.
2. Arbitrary rules and deadlines are indiscriminate. They penalize good
workers as well as bad.
3. Rules and deadlines that attack symptoms rather than core requirements
create an arcane and arbitrary bureaucracy that serves more as a barrier
to
getting work done that a facilitator.
<irony> How nice to know that you think so, Dave.... does that mean that we
will have no more suggestions for arbitrarily chopping off working groups
that don't meet certain deadlines for delivering useful output?
</irony>
unfortunately also:
1. A problem working group always resists getting its issues fixed.
2. A problem working group's first line of defense is "we don't have a
problem".
3. A problem working group's second line of defense is "what rules did we
violate".
4. A problem working group's last ditch line of defense is to make the job
of fixing its problems so unpleasant for the person who tries to help fix
it that that person either burns out or chooses to work on some more
rewarding task.
(this does not apply only to working groups....)
In most cases, rules are, in addition to giving guidance, a tool for
getting to defense line #4 quickly..... viz:
- a WG that has problems getting drafts in on time MAY have someone who
tries to ramrod things through - OR it may have genuine last-minute changes.
- an author who's submitting drafts with improper boilerplate MAY be sloppy
and/or unable to get the CLRs right - OR he may be trying to slip something
into the IETF system that gives his company leverage later
- a WG that consistently misses deadlines and has deadlines 1 year out of
date (I chair one of those :-() MAY have a problem with the WG chair's
attention bandwidth, the participation, or the style of debate - OR it may
be so close to finishing that it's decided it's more important to finish
the last set of documents than to update its charter
In all cases, I think there's no substitute for really looking at the
specifics of the situation and trying to figure out what's going on - and
the most important resource we have there is the bandwidth of good people
who are willing and able to do the work.
Rules are tools. But occasionally we need all the tools we can use.
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