Category: agile

AllanAdmin from Allan Kelly

18 months ago everyone who worked in an office was sent home, and told “work from home.” Suddenly even the most anti-work from home companies and bosses had to accept it. Even the slowest, bureaucratic, IT departments had to support remote working.

In many ways it has been a great experiment – an experiment that is judged a success because people have been more productive than expected. And look… the western economies are still here. Indeed, some businesses have boomed.

But, I don’t think that was the great experiment. To my mind the great experiment starts now – now that people are getting the option to work in the office or work from home, now that big-bad-managers can lean on people to go into the office and start using “presenteeism” again.

There are a few of points about the great work from home which I think are generally missed. It is because these points no longer apply which makes me thing now is the true experiment. I’ve also got a bunch of concerns, I’m not convinced that surviving the last 18 months by working-from-home is the way we should carry on.

First, the great work-from-home was egalitarian: it wasn’t a privilege or a punishment. Nor was it self-selecting: whether you wanted to or not you did it.

Second, everyone had to do it so everything was online. There were no meetings with some people in one room and others hanging on the end of a telephone, the kitchen was no longer a place for side chats and the smokers couldn’t have their own meetings outside the back door.

Third there was no end date: there was no option to say “we’ll decide it when we are all in the office.”

Finally, last but not least: at least initially it was existing people and teams so relationships and social-capital already existed People were used to working together already.

Bringing in new people, “onboarding” and “enculturing” is always hard, its a lot harder online – and being honest, one of the things I find hardest is finding my way into a new team when everything is online.

As work-from-home has gone on teams have had to learn to recruit and incorporate new people online.

Now, as people drift back to the office – at different paces in different places – these points don’t hold. Now being in the office or not is often a choice, it is no longer whole teams so those side conversations are back.

To my mind this is an even bigger experiment than the great work-from-home; and I think it is going to prove more difficult for companies and teams to navigate.

Personally, I’m really lucky, I’ve had my office in my home for years so I’m all set up for it. But I’m sick of working in the same place day-after-day for months on end. While I’m sure many people never want to see an office again I think there will be many others who are keen to go back to the office.

Next, I have a few fears about the extended remote working model. First off is mental health: without an office, without the journey to and from the office, without the change of clothes that all involves there is less separation between work and home. Without dividing lines that means work impinges on home time and it is difficult to escape work stress.

Second, online working is far more dependent on the written form. That means that those of us who struggle with the written form are at a disadvantage.

Yes I know I’m a bad example, I write too much. But look at all my grammatical and spelling foibles – I’m dyslexic. I’ve learned to be good at writing but really I’d rather be talking.

As e-mail replaces the telephone, Slack replaces the talking across the desk, WhatsApp replaces coffee conversations those of us who struggle with writing are disadvantaged.

Next, I’m concerned for younger people, those who only entered the work force recently. How are they to learn about their job? How are they to learn work culture, let along specific company culture if there is no office?

And most those same people are often in a more difficult position. They are stilling with their parents in their childhood bedroom, or they are living in a house share with problematic internet. In short, younger people need the office more and they need older people as role models and teachers.

Finally, I feel a lot of technology people – programmers specifically – are very keen to push back on any suggestion that face-to-face communication, and co-location, has any advantages. It seems very acceptable to say “We can do everything online, there is no difference.”

I beg to differ. If only because without body language, without facial expressions, without seeing how people react then communication is less – the old “80% of communication is non-verbal” idea. You can do a lot online, but you can also do a lot in person.

Unfortunately I don’t see this debate. I don’t see people discussing “what is best done online” and “what is best done in person.” I see my fellow digital workers being very quick to push back on anyone that questions online working.

Perhaps it’s me, but I feel the technology community is so anti-office work that I have hesitated even to voice these concerns. Anyone else share these views? Or am I persona non-grata?

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The post Questioning the great work from home experiment appeared first on Allan Kelly.

AllanAdmin from Allan Kelly Associates

18 months ago everyone who worked in an office was sent home, and told “work from home.” Suddenly even the most anti-work from home companies and bosses had to accept it. Even the slowest, bureaucratic, IT departments had to support remote working.

In many ways it has been a great experiment – an experiment that is judged a success because people have been more productive than expected. And look… the western economies are still here. Indeed, some businesses have boomed.

But, I don’t think that was the great experiment. To my mind the great experiment starts now – now that people are getting the option to work in the office or work from home, now that big-bad-managers can lean on people to go into the office and start using “presenteeism” again.

There are a few of points about the great work from home which I think are generally missed. It is because these points no longer apply which makes me thing now is the true experiment. I’ve also got a bunch of concerns, I’m not convinced that surviving the last 18 months by working-from-home is the way we should carry on.

First, the great work-from-home was egalitarian: it wasn’t a privilege or a punishment. Nor was it self-selecting: whether you wanted to or not you did it.

Second, everyone had to do it so everything was online. There were no meetings with some people in one room and others hanging on the end of a telephone, the kitchen was no longer a place for side chats and the smokers couldn’t have their own meetings outside the back door.

Third there was no end date: there was no option to say “we’ll decide it when we are all in the office.”

Finally, last but not least: at least initially it was existing people and teams so relationships and social-capital already existed People were used to working together already.

Bringing in new people, “onboarding” and “enculturing” is always hard, its a lot harder online – and being honest, one of the things I find hardest is finding my way into a new team when everything is online.

As work-from-home has gone on teams have had to learn to recruit and incorporate new people online.

Now, as people drift back to the office – at different paces in different places – these points don’t hold. Now being in the office or not is often a choice, it is no longer whole teams so those side conversations are back.

To my mind this is an even bigger experiment than the great work-from-home; and I think it is going to prove more difficult for companies and teams to navigate.

Personally, I’m really lucky, I’ve had my office in my home for years so I’m all set up for it. But I’m sick of working in the same place day-after-day for months on end. While I’m sure many people never want to see an office again I think there will be many others who are keen to go back to the office.

Next, I have a few fears about the extended remote working model. First off is mental health: without an office, without the journey to and from the office, without the change of clothes that all involves there is less separation between work and home. Without dividing lines that means work impinges on home time and it is difficult to escape work stress.

Second, online working is far more dependent on the written form. That means that those of us who struggle with the written form are at a disadvantage.

Yes I know I’m a bad example, I write too much. But look at all my grammatical and spelling foibles – I’m dyslexic. I’ve learned to be good at writing but really I’d rather be talking.

As e-mail replaces the telephone, Slack replaces the talking across the desk, WhatsApp replaces coffee conversations those of us who struggle with writing are disadvantaged.

Next, I’m concerned for younger people, those who only entered the work force recently. How are they to learn about their job? How are they to learn work culture, let along specific company culture if there is no office?

And most those same people are often in a more difficult position. They are stilling with their parents in their childhood bedroom, or they are living in a house share with problematic internet. In short, younger people need the office more and they need older people as role models and teachers.

Finally, I feel a lot of technology people – programmers specifically – are very keen to push back on any suggestion that face-to-face communication, and co-location, has any advantages. It seems very acceptable to say “We can do everything online, there is no difference.”

I beg to differ. If only because without body language, without facial expressions, without seeing how people react then communication is less – the old “80% of communication is non-verbal” idea. You can do a lot online, but you can also do a lot in person.

Unfortunately I don’t see this debate. I don’t see people discussing “what is best done online” and “what is best done in person.” I see my fellow digital workers being very quick to push back on anyone that questions online working.

Perhaps it’s me, but I feel the technology community is so anti-office work that I have hesitated even to voice these concerns. Anyone else share these views? Or am I persona non-grata?

---

Subscribe to my blog and download Continuous Digital for free – normal price $9.99/£9.95/€9.95

The post Questioning the great work from home experiment appeared first on Allan Kelly Associates.

Allan Kelly from Allan Kelly Associates

“Should unplanned work be allowed after the sprint starts?”

One of those questions which comes up again and again. And it came up last week when I visited a clients offices – yes I actually visited a client! The answer to this question is, as often happens: It depends. So let me give you my thinking.

First, many teams have a rule that work must be scheduled in the sprint planning meeting, after which this is fixed. Teams have a right to make this rule so if this is a team rule – what Kanban folk call a policy – then work is not allowed in.

This rule is based on a strict interpretation of Scrum. The thinking – particularly in early implemenations of Scrum – was that changing priorities was a big problem for teams and therefore fixing the work to be done for a few weeks made sense. In the event of that things did change the team would declare an “abnormal termination of sprint” and move to start a new sprint with new priorities.

Now for some teams this makes complete sense. Barring work from entering the sprint after planning makes complete sense. Equally it makes sense for team members to only do work scheduled in the sprint and refuse all other work. So, it depends… when a team is troubled by new work appearing, priorities changing, and when a team are expected to deliver something new – when their overarching priority is not support but building something new – then this approach makes complete sense.

But, don’t follow this rule just because you think Scrum says so. I just had a quick look at the latest Scrum Guide doesn’t actually mention abnormal termination of sprint. It does say “No changes are made that would endanger the Sprint Goal” which then leads us into a conversation about the sprint goal but let’s hold that for now.

Now ring fencing the team and the sprint like this solves one set of problems but it creates another set. If the team are aiming to be reactive why would they not pick up work?

And as teams increasingly become DevOps or SecDevOps, or BizDev, or whatever, things get more complicated. It would be irresponsible to hold a “no work enters the sprint” if the live server was down or a security hole had been found. But at the same time, being hyper-reactive has a downside because the team would be constant distracted.

Ultimately it is the Product Owner who should have the final say on whether work is unplanned work is accepted or not but when you have a customer on the phone someone else may be forced into a decision.

I apply two tests: is the unplanned work really urgent? – or could it wait a few days and be considered in the next sprint. (Or even queued in the backlog for longer.)

Second, is the unplanned work valuable? – namely, is it more valuable than the work the team are doing and would be displaced by this work. Ideally it would valuable enough to justify the disruption it causes by late entry too.

Hence I like to talk about urgent but valuable unplanned work. Just because something appears after sprint planning doesn’t mean it is not valuable. If the work is urgent, and if it is valuable enough, then it deserves to enter the sprint and get done.

However I like to build in two feedback loops. First, as the work arises, does the person raising the work understand the disruption this will cause? Are they prepared to accept that some other work may not get done?

I like to make this real: pull up your board and show the requester the consequences. Let them prioritise the work against the current planned work. This can make the unplanned work go away.

Second, mark the late-breaking work so you can track it through the system – on a physical board I would use a yellow card. At the end of the sprint review how many yellow cards you have and talk about whether the right decision was made.

Over time, as you build up your data – and stock of done yellow cards – you can reason about the cards and decide your long term action. For example,

You might want to make an allowance in sprint planning for unplanned work: suppose your team averages 3 yellow cards a sprint, then, when you are planning the sprint allow space for them.

If you have many yellow cards regularly you might even want to move to a Kanban model or split the team.

Review the requests, what are the common themes? – is there a module which is particularly troublesome, would some remedial work help reduce the unplanned work.

Or is there someone in particular who raises unplanned work? Should the team leaders talk to this person and see if they could change their behaviour, perhaps they could make their requests a few days earlier.

Maybe you want to ring-fence a team member to deal with unplanned work while the rest of the team pushes on with the main work.

As I said at the top of this post, the unplanned work question comes up a lot. I discussed it in Xanpan so if you want more examples go there. And if you have any other suggestions please comment on this post.

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