Productivity: the state or quality of producing something
Not too long ago at a daily stand up I heard from a Team member “Today I won’t get anything done. I have 5 hours of meetings….meetings bloody meetings” As the team coach (read “Chicken”) I said nothing at the scrum, but took the opportunity afterward to ask a question …
After many years of being part of 100% collocated teams, I’ve returned to working with 100% distributed, virtual, or remote teams. To remain effective, high-performing distributed teams rely on a number of important factors such as trust, ownership, a focus on results, and effective communication to get stuff done.
Every system – particular a complex one like a cross-functional development team – has constraints. Somewhere along the way from “Ready” to “Done” something impedes productivity and flow, be it drag or turbulence, viscosity, or excessive effort. Some folks call these issue bottlenecks, blockers, setbacks, obstacles, impediments, obstructions or waste. …
In some companies, Engineering/Development uses QA as the bug catchers. And in some of those places, as hard as it is to believe, QA is rewarded based on the number of bugs they find. The more bugs, the greater their reward. Shocking isn’t it – because as a fine craftperson …
Interruptions Stink Let’s face it: Interruptions and distractions are definitely issues that tamper with productivity. It doesn’t matter these days if you’re in an collocated workspace environment, or remote. Teamwork and collaboration requires frequent communication. Yet we want to make sure that doesn’t derail our train of thought. So instead of going back …
