
Ask HN: What is an acceptable or normal busy-work overhead in your org - ripvanwinkle
I&#x27;d like to poll this community to understand overheads you encounter in the business of delivering a software solution. By overhead I mean things that if they were cut would not impact the quality of the product you ship<p>Some examples of overhead  (and this is not exhaustive) might be<p>- Preparing slideware or other collateral for checkpoint reviews, exec reviews including time spent reviewing them with other stakeholder ahead of the &quot;final review&quot;<p>- Managing up, communicating status for the purpose of visibility and not so much to inform a relevant stakeholder<p>Some examples of the reverse (i.e things that are core and not overhead) are<p>- Designing the stuff including prototypes that are unsuccessful<p>- Implementing solution, fixing bugs<p>- Working with customers at requirements gathering time and later at each iteration of the product<p>- etc. ....<p>Love to hear. If possible, provide the following context and anything you find relevant<p>Here&#x27;s an example<p>Company: BigCo<p>Overhead: 40%<p>Details: Feel free to add anything you might have about your product.
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firstimer
Company: Microsoft

Overhead: 30%

Details: Capacity management space in the cloud organization

