"is it worth the time?"
expressionops cultureprogramming
The question of whether automating a task actually saves more time than it costs to automate.
A famous xkcd table weighs how often you do a task against how long automating it takes, to show when the effort pays off. It is the honest counterweight to the engineer's instinct to automate everything, and a close cousin of yak shaving.
Also known as: automation tradeoff, xkcd 1205, worth the time
Sources
- xkcd 1205, "Is It Worth the Time?"