Daylight savings and business rules

Daylight savings and business rules

This past Sunday, most of the US observed Daylight Savings Time and moved our clocks one hour ahead. Daylight Savings Time (DST) is a case-study in how bad business rules never go away. Consider:

  • DST was implemented first during WWI and then implemented as federal law in 1966. A classic case of "We've always done it this way."
  • You should always seek to simplify business rules. But DST is not simple. With the exception of internet-connected clocks, you have to manually reset all of your clocks. In the US this is calculated to cost $2 BILLION annually.
  • DST manages TO the exception, another business rule no-no. One intent of the law was to provide more daylight because of the high cost of energy (specifically high oil prices). Oil prices (and energy costs in general) are dramatically lower than they were when these laws were enacted.

Daylight Savings Time is a waste of time (no pun intended) and money and provides little to no value.

How many of your business rules do the same?

Wes's Wednesday Wisdom Archives

Don’t get hung up on something minor

November 2, 2022

Don’t get hung up on something minor I’m a problem solver. I love to solve […]

Be flexible, especially for unusual requests

October 26, 2022

Be flexible, especially for unusual requests One of the great benefits of off-the-shelf association management software (AMS) […]

“Her eyes were bigger than her stomach.”

October 19, 2022

“Her eyes were bigger than her stomach.” When I was a child, my siblings used […]

Once you buy crap…

October 12, 2022

Once you buy crap… “When you buy something cheap and bad, the best you’re going […]

It could always be worse

October 5, 2022

It could always be worse Because most of us don’t have the benefit (like I […]

It’s all about managing expectations

September 28, 2022

It’s all about managing expectations I placed an order online on a Friday and the […]

Experience is the best teacher

September 21, 2022

Experience is the best teacher Experience is the best teacher. Every one of us has […]

Don’t ask for what you don’t need!

September 14, 2022

Don’t ask for what you don’t need! Recently I received a bill from a doctor’s […]

It is never done – so celebrate!

September 7, 2022

It is never done – so celebrate! A client of mine recently had their official […]

MDR (Minimum Data Required)

August 31, 2022

MDR (Minimum Data Required) I’ve written about minimum viable product (MVP) in software development in the […]

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top