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

Be deliberate, but act quickly

October 23, 2019

Be deliberate, but act quickly Be deliberate, but act quickly. These are my words of […]

Why associations don’t like the “S” word

October 16, 2019

Why associations don’t like the “S” word A couple of weeks ago I asked my […]

The “S” stands for “Standard”

October 9, 2019

The “S” stands for “Standard” In a conversation with a past client, we were discussing […]

Is that meaningless data?

September 25, 2019

Is that meaningless data? I’m not a big quotes guy, but one of the few […]

Be aware of unintended consequences

September 18, 2019

Be aware of unintended consequences I’ve written before that every decision involves a trade-off. When […]

Positive change is harder to see

September 11, 2019

Positive change is harder to see Humans are wired to see negative change because we […]

MVP: Minimum Viable Product

September 4, 2019

MVP: Minimum Viable Product In product development there is a concept known as MVP, or […]

You always need a reason for collecting data

August 28, 2019

You always need a reason for collecting data When you ask for data from someone […]

If you’re unhappy, speak up!

August 21, 2019

If you’re unhappy, speak up! My clients will often ask me something along the lines […]

Does it advance the mission?

August 14, 2019

Does it advance the mission? Because associations are mission-driven, everything you do should be seen […]

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published.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

Scroll to Top