This works really well in mechanical engineering, too. We don’t necessarily use tickets specifically, but planning out work or a design upfront with a small audience saves a lot of time and wasted effort.
On some level this is just basic project planning, which in my view is an underdeveloped skill in most modern engineering teams. In the case of the ‘empty ticket’, it’s project planning but at a lower level. Not every bit of work needs this, but many would benefit, especially when the taskee is at a more junior level.
I wholeheartedly support this approach. Nearly every major project requires a team, not an individual, and coordinating and collaborating are basic functions of getting things done.
"Without good [design] documentation every mistake, large or small, is analyzed by one man who probably made the mistake in the first place because he is the only man who understands the program area."
- Winston Royce, "Managing the development of large software systems"
That said I've also seen over-collaboration lead to a similar situation. In that case everybody ends up with their own personal model of what the plan is, based on their own interpretation of all the endless talking around in circles. Maybe there is also a design document that purports to be the source of truth, but nobody is actually paying attention to it. Possibly because all the bickering and confusion turns maintaining it into an impossible task.
On some level this is just basic project planning, which in my view is an underdeveloped skill in most modern engineering teams. In the case of the ‘empty ticket’, it’s project planning but at a lower level. Not every bit of work needs this, but many would benefit, especially when the taskee is at a more junior level.
I wholeheartedly support this approach. Nearly every major project requires a team, not an individual, and coordinating and collaborating are basic functions of getting things done.