This task could have been a script

Some days, a few lines of scripting will save you hours of tedious manual work. Some others, you can get sidetracked into spending hours trying to automate something that could have been done in a few minutes manually…​

Where do we draw the line? Some people say that 1h of scripting should save you at least 1h of manual work over the next few years to be valuable, but is it really the only parameter to take into account? When is automating a manual task a good idea and when is it just a distraction?

In this session, we’ll try to think of all the value automating can bring and all the costs it entails. We might not end up with a simple equation like "time spent < time saved" to help us make easy decisions, but we’ll have a more complete vision of what is at stake. And perhaps we’ll find convincing arguments for our manager next time we want to wander a bit!