There are definitely some downsides to overtime: -The team may start to burnout -The increase in velocity may become an expectation -It can lead to a decrease in performance/productivity/morale -Poor work-life balance -It can be an indication that the organization is unwilling to pay for additional resources However, there are some upsides: -Some people appreciate the extra income -It may not seem like a heavy lift when others are doing it as well -It may prevent a death marc

“Exploit the constraint” comes from Dr. Eli Goldratt's book The Goal, where he identifies Five Focusing Steps as a way to continuously improve throughput. The 2nd step is the focus on this blog post. The premise is that when you encounter a problem you want to make it highly visible. The temptation for a lot of teams is to do the opposite and hide the problem as quickly as possible. For example, some teams experience broken builds on their nightly runs. Their immediate re