Focus: The lack of it will cost you.

My wife wants it all. She wants me to do the dishes; fold the laundry; mow the lawn and finish a crown molding project that has dragged on for over two years. In addition to those projects, she has many visions for the future that may or may not turn into potential projects. I like to call them my backlog of honey-do items.

She wants them all done now! The determining factor for which item I work on is heavily dependent on which is on her mind. She is my loving Business Owner and the Product Owner of #teamcollins.

My kids are not authorized to obligate me to major projects or capital expenditures however; they often require immediate attention. When they need something, it is generally elevated to 'expedite' status. Feed me. Play with me. Help me with homework. Wipe me. If I don’t address their immediate needs; things start to go downhill quickly. Their work items are like 'production support.' There are things I can do to eliminate this work in the long run but, since the issue popped up, I have to take care of it.

While I know how to do most of the things in the product backlog and I have a plan to get them done, I work best when I can focus on them one at a time. If I am not afforded this focus, I never seem to get them done fast enough. 

For simple tasks like the dishes and laundry, if I am interrupted, there is a cost but, generally, it isn't too high. While folding the laundry, the dish water gets cold and has to be refreshed. While doing the dishes, the folded laundry gets knocked over and a few items have to be re-folded. My inability to focus on the dishes or the laundry is annoying and requires some re-work, the switching cost is low because its somewhat mindless work. There is little ramp up needed to get to full speed.

For more complicated work, the impact of switching focus is much more costly. As many of you may know, crown molding work requires some special equipment: miter saw, air compressor, ladder, tape measure, pencil, protractor and the actual crown molding. The work isn't labor intensive, however; it does require significant focus to avoid costly mistakes - similar to software development work.

When I have time to set up my environment to work on this project, the first few pieces take significantly longer than average. I must focus on wall angles; I must remember how to setup the saw; I must remember how to orient the molding for an inside vs and outside corner or a 135 degree corner vs a 90 degree corner. Once I get going, I can move along pretty well. If I get interrupted along the way, this momentum stops.

Over the past few years, this project has been halted many times. Other than the constant delays due to changing focus, the value of my time has changed (increased) and the cost of material has doubled. On a few occasions, pieces of crown molding have been broken while in storage or ruined by dampness. If I could just be allowed to focus for one or two weekends, without the normal distractions, I would be able to finish this project for good. In the meantime, every time I restart this project, I have to re-pay the cost of getting going again. There is no avoiding it as it is the nature of complicated work.

There are many studies that state task switching can cost 20-40% of productivity for development teams yet, we have a really hard time instilling the value of focus in our organizations. The irony occurs when we place the blame of stagnant or decreasing velocity on a constantly interrupted development team as if they are choosing to switch their focus. Most of the time, I have not found teams to be the root of this problem.

Leadership (be it Product or Development) has much more to do with our teams inability to focus than any other group.

When a team surfaces this problem via their retrospective and escalates it as an organizational improvement item, we should seriously consider the impact of not taking corrective action. What if you could have a 30-40% increase in your development teams productivity over the next quarter simply by allowing them to focus during an iteration? Is jamming that simple fix into the teams sprint backlog really worth it? I doubt it.

It is my hope that Scrum Masters and Release Train Engineers are working diligently on coaching their organizations on the value of focus.

Post Scriptum

Yes, I have been working on my crown molding for over two years. Yes, I have been interrupted continuously. That being said, I have given my wife the ability to change direction. Every piece of crown molding I put up is treated as if it is the last piece I will be allowed to install. It is a finished piece of work. When my wife wants me to shift my focus, the last piece is caulked, painted and the end is capped. I clean up my work area, put away my tools and move on to the task she has chosen for me next. I do not hold her hostage to a messy house that looks like it is under construction perpetually.

We must coach our teams to always work in a way that allows the business to pivot at a moments notice. How many development teams forget this principle?

"Welcome changing requirements, even late in development. Agile processes harness change for the customer's competitive advantage."

-AgileManifesto.org

If you are not planning your sprints so that the business can change direction; how are you upholding this principle? I have watched many product managers and product owners be held hostage by a team who does not work as if the directions could change at the end of the sprint. Planning and working in this manner constantly does cost more but, it gives teams confidence that their code is clean and complete. It gives the business confidence that they have the business agility to compete in a rapidly changing marketplace.

While I am highlighting the cost incurred when a team is not allowed to focus on a development effort, I think it is only fair to point out the situation that often occurs when the team does not have a goal of delivering 'working software' at the end of each sprint. Both the organization and the teams have a part to play in creating focus during a sprint while keeping the option to change open.

A great Scrum Master that recognizes these situations occurring can help coach the team and the organization to their next level of agile maturity.