Efficiency

At GitLab, efficiency means producing results without wasting materials, time, or energy. We optimize solutions globally for the broader GitLab community over one person or a small group. Focus on efficiency should be global in nature, not just local to a given function.

Porridge Beta

Back to the universal principles

Calibration

Under, just right, over.

SituationUnderJust RightOver
A local shortcutTakes the shortcut and leaves the cost with every other team.Takes it only if the total time and energy go down, and says who pays if they do not.Bans the shortcut even when it is cheaper for everyone, because it was not invented centrally.
A clever local toolBuilds a tool that saves your team an hour and costs the community a day of exceptions.Uses the shared path, or fixes the shared path, instead of a private one.Forces a global tool that is worse than the local one for every team, including yours.
Optimizing for one personSpecial-cases one person's workflow and everyone else routes around it.Asks whether the change helps the broader group, and declines it when it does not.Refuses a one-person fix that would also remove a trap for everyone else.
Materials, time, and energySaves money and spends a week of people's time to do it, or the reverse, without counting.Counts the scarce thing, including time and energy, and picks the cheaper total.Optimizes a spreadsheet while the actual waste is in the work.
A boring shared solutionRebuilds a novel version because the shared one is dull.Uses the boring shared solution and improves it where it fails the broader group.Standardizes on a boring solution that does not do the job, and forbids the fix.
Local efficiency as the goalCelebrates a local saving that moved the cost one team over.Reports the effect on the whole path, not only on your step.Ignores a real local waste because you cannot prove the global number today.

Further reading

Sources and essays on this principle.

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