Page 166 - The Art of Designing Embedded Systems

Troubleshooting Tools 153

a business won’t provide very expensive engineers new machines every two
years. I’ve seen compile times shrink from tens of minutes to tens of sec-
onds when transitioning just one generation of computers; surely this trans-
lates immediately into real payroll savings and faster development times!
Yes, we have an insatiable appetite for new goodies. Glittering new
scopes, emulators, logic analyzers, and software tools fill our thoughts
much as kids dream of Tonkas and Barbies. Very often, though, the gap
between what we want and what we get is as wide as the Grand Canyon.
Now, I know the cost and scarcity of capital. Just try going to the
bank, hat humbly in hand, looking for working capital when you really
need it. Venture capital is the seed of high tech, but is much less available
than people realize.
There’s never enough money, especially in smaller businesses, so
every decision is a financial tradeoff between competing needs.
I also know the cost of payroll. It’s by far the biggest expense in most
technology businesses. Yet many managers view payroll as a sunk cost.
Years ago my boss told me, “I have to pay you anyway, but to buy that
scope costs me real money.”
Well, no, actually, he didn’t have to pay me or any of the engineers.
He had options: do less engineering with fewer people and save on salary.
Use us inefficiently and ignore the costs. Work to improve our efficiency
and either get products out faster or get the same work done with fewer
people.
This concept of payroll as a fixed cost is a myth, one that destroys too
many technology companies. Managers do have the ability to manage this
cost, the biggest one of all, effectively. It’s not easy and it’s never “done”;
effective management requires an intimate understanding of the processes
involved, a willingness to experiment and tune, and a dedication to a
never-ending quest to find lots of 1 and 2% improvements, as the magic
20% efficiency improvements are indeed rare.
Our culture of absorbing payroll as a fixed expense means we battle
for weeks over $lO,OOO tool costs while ignoring, or accepting, $1 million
in salary costs.
Perhaps this is symptomatic of uninformed managers and exhibits it-
self in every area of development. One friend who makes a living design-
ing products as a contractor tells me story after story of companies that
happily spend a quarter million dollars on tooling for the product’s plastic
box, yet balk at a quote for $30k in custom firmware.
I see an increasing number of companies embracing the noble ideal
of “doing more with less” without understanding that sometimes spending
a bit on tools is the fastest route to that ideal.