All you guys have been hitting ground frustrated by your job's never ending to-do list. So is the case with Facebook developers but the company has a noble plan to re-energize them which will spring developers for month-long stints with new teams working on different projects under Hackamonth.
This idea comes out of hackathons : short-lived, intense overnight sessions where engineers pound out code, consume vast amounts of caffeine and throw together some kind of working prototype or new product. Generally Hackamonths are month-long night-out sessions, but the company isn't asking its engineers to pull 30 straight all-nighters. Instead, its new Hackamonth program sends developers who have been plowing away on a specific project for more than a year to work with a new team for a month.
There will be around 10% of developers at a time working on a Hackamonth and it is expected to greatly increase the fluidity of our engineering team while sharing of knowledge across teams. Facebook already held three pilot Hackamonths over the past year, with 35 developers participating. Beyond shaking staffers out of their routines, the program also helped Facebook staff several high-priority development efforts, including an iPhone app update and enhancements to Facebook's photos feature.
The concept is similar to Google's 20% time program, though which the company encourage engineers to spend 20% of their work time on projects tangential to their day job. Some of those "20% time projects" have turned into full-fledged Google products, including Gmail, Google News, Google Talk and social network Orkut.
Facebook plans to kick off its fourth Hackamonth this Monday and as per Facebook developers, Hackamonth is more targeted as you have clear objectives to get things done.
This idea comes out of hackathons : short-lived, intense overnight sessions where engineers pound out code, consume vast amounts of caffeine and throw together some kind of working prototype or new product. Generally Hackamonths are month-long night-out sessions, but the company isn't asking its engineers to pull 30 straight all-nighters. Instead, its new Hackamonth program sends developers who have been plowing away on a specific project for more than a year to work with a new team for a month.
There will be around 10% of developers at a time working on a Hackamonth and it is expected to greatly increase the fluidity of our engineering team while sharing of knowledge across teams. Facebook already held three pilot Hackamonths over the past year, with 35 developers participating. Beyond shaking staffers out of their routines, the program also helped Facebook staff several high-priority development efforts, including an iPhone app update and enhancements to Facebook's photos feature.
The concept is similar to Google's 20% time program, though which the company encourage engineers to spend 20% of their work time on projects tangential to their day job. Some of those "20% time projects" have turned into full-fledged Google products, including Gmail, Google News, Google Talk and social network Orkut.
Facebook plans to kick off its fourth Hackamonth this Monday and as per Facebook developers, Hackamonth is more targeted as you have clear objectives to get things done.
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