[alkonaut]

> On a different note, one place I consulted with had its planning and tracking tool (Jira-like Azure DevOps) directly feed into its accounting system, such that different types of work were bucketed into different amortization flows. Planned work was a capital expenditure (CapEx), while anything funneled into Unplanned became an operating expenditure (OpEx). Any accountant that knows the implications of CapEx vs. OpEx can see where this is going. This company had a lot of bugs and issues that were left unaddressed.

Same experience where I work. Not perhaps "directly fed" to the accounting, but something similar. Basically: someone somewhere needs to know how many hours were CapEx and how many were OpEx. The division between planned work and unplanned work is a crude way of doing that. It's not perfect, but I do prefer that division over having to report hour by hour whether I did cap/op-ex work. The only problem I see with it is if this creates pressure on either a) creatively marking work as one type or the other or b) prioritizing incorrectly due to on this. Those are real problems (luckily I have not seen that where I work). But the division itself seems like as good a method as any.

[cratermoon]

> The only problem I see with it is if this creates pressure on either a) creatively marking work as one type or the other or b) prioritizing incorrectly due to on this.

This pressure is inexorable. With the wrong incentives, anything that falls under OpEx will be discouraged.