Criticism Focuses on the Political Implications of a Work of Art

Most of u.s.a. in the It world are busy people.  Nosotros are certainly in the age of push technology overload and minimizing wasteful work at personal, professional person and corporate level is a constant goal.

From the Agile Manifesto, there are twelve principles[1] related to software delivery.  All the principles still accept deep pregnant fifteen years subsequently the institution of them, but one that repeatedly resonates with me is the 10th principle: "Simplicity–the art of maximizing the amount of work non done–is essential".

When I've asked people who have been in the Information technology manufacture for a long time, they will oft question the idea of "maximizing the amount of work not done".  Why would i maximize not doing something?  Well, the concept shouldn't be that catchy to sympathise.  Let me provide a common example.

For me, context switching is a daily claiming to manage.  In my job, there are constant interruptions in the grade of calls, Instant Messages, texts, emails and the sometime fashioned tapping on my shoulder.  I've had an former, rather bad addiction of wanting to "keep my inbox" clean and checking my email throughout the 24-hour interval.  Obviously I'm not the only one since over a third of Americans follow me in this do[ii].  This is a productivity killer since I'm always switching between focused work and my emails.  This doesn't follow the Kanban-inspired "End Starting, Showtime Finishing" mantra.

So more frequently now, I keep my e-mail airtight throughout the mean solar day and simply get into it like to spelunking into a cave.  Cheque it out only a few times a day.  Productivity appears to accept risen since I find myself finishing more than before going on to the next job.  So this is about maximize the corporeality of work non done.  Don't cheque on electronic mail regularly since it'southward a productivity killer.

Now let's take this Lean-Agile principle to the software development globe.  From Donald G. Reinertsen'due south book, "Flow"[three], there is a balance between the frequency of whatsoever transition (i.e. checking your electronic mail) and the belongings cost (i.e. others waiting for you lot to answer your email).  This balance is very tricky to meet since it is dependent on the situation.  If you go urgent emails daily that require instant attention (product system alerts, major support incident, etc.) and so checking your e-mail frequency would be necessary.

See the below overall conceptual chart of how to maximize your flow.  Sometimes, maximizing flow is articulate and easy when at an private level.  However, at the organizational and squad levels it becomes far more complicated.  Only through tracking and measuring the results will yous exist able to make up one's mind the optimum identify of maximizing the work not washed.  Annotation sometimes the results will be surprising!

Then have for instance Scrum ceremonies similar excess refinement, sprint planning, sprint reviews, dart retrospectives and of course, the daily stand up.  If we consider the daily standup, many team members often find it a "waste of time".  That may indeed be the case.  For case, if the team is collocated and regularly talk together, they may already have this key points of a stand up known to each other.  Using tools like Jira, TFS, CA Technologies (once Rally), VersionOne, etc. will also subtract the "churr".  In this case, reducing the number of standups may actually exist the all-time remedy and increase the corporeality of work not done.

Scrum has a set of tools with a recommended set of cadences that should be synchronized in order to simplify commitment and therefore maximize the work not washed.  This recommendation should exist adjusted based on the needs of the organization.  Scrum is flexible, simply still organized simply at a different levels.

A diligent leader will always exist seeking for these areas of waste material and pointing those out to their staff to address their own organizational bottlenecks, reducing the amount of waste.  For case, I've seen the Outlook calendar for a specific CTO in a large retail company where his schedule was booked pretty much 100% from usually 7am – 5pm every single 24-hour interval.  Alike to a state highway at 100% usage, this brings his productivity down to a minimum where working early mornings and evenings becomes necessary for daily work and less on longer term vision, innovation and growth.  He should focus on maximizing that work not washed by blocking out fourth dimension for completing priority work and thereby freeing upwardly the resulting traffic jam for unexpected events.

 So when you lot are in the middle of your busy work twenty-four hour period, remember to continuously seek ways to maximize that work not done.  This is a never ending process and volition always demand action or otherwise decrease your enterprises' power to perform.

[ane] http://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html

[2] http://www.businessinsider.com/how-often-do-people-check-their-email-2015-eight

[3] http://ardalis.com/principles-of-product-development-menstruation-book-review

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Source: https://www.cio.com/article/238531/the-art-of-maximizing-work-not-done.html

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