I'm currently reading through Getting Results, a productivity book based on desired outcomes. One of its guiding principles is to eliminate Analysis Paralysis, a condition that occurs when a person, Department, or institution becomes paralyzed while analyzing a set of alternatives. So much analysis occurs that nothing gets accomplished, whereas a great deal could have been accomplished if action was taken, even if it proved to be the wrong decision.
The new book Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeir Hansson of 37 Signals also espouses this idea that action is preferable to inaction. With the phrase 'Planning is Guessing' in the book, it is clear that the authors put little stock in up front planning.
From my limited experience, I have to agree that the state of doing is preferable to analyzing. About 2 years ago the development project I was on came to a screeching halt while many requirements were discussed for inclusion into the next release. For reasons I'll never fully understand management spent several months planning and debating the direction of our product, when we could have designed, developed, and tested a major release to the product.
During this time, the development team had little to do. About once a week I would ask for more work to do, but my manages rarely had anything for me. We had a few support issues to work on, and a few internal projects to work on, but I found myself with alot at free time.
As a developer on this project, my hands were tied. Due to a bad release cycle a couple years earlier, developers were not allowed to touch the code unless they had a specific requirement. We could have re-written piles of the code and done away with the behemoth 1000 and 2000 line functions, but that was not a decision the developers were allowed to make.
Anyway, it was during this fine that it formed a couple bad habits that l still have today. I began subscribing to numerous blogs, reading online technical articles, and even a couple of books during the day while waiting for work. During this time, I was exposed to Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby and Getting Real, both very good books from the Ruby community.
Today, I still find myself habitual Checking for new blog posts throughout the day, even though I have plenty of work to do. It is even worse now then before, because I'm following many more blogs today then ever.
In addition to the wasted time by having a development team do nothing for a long period of time, one also risks them becoming lethargic and the possibility that they develop bad habits that do not easily disappear when work returns.
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