I Can Sing and Dance, But I Don’t Juggle
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Ken Whitaker of Leading Software Maniacs (LSM) has more than 25 years of software development executive leadership and training experience in a variety of technology roles and industries. He has led commercial software teams at Software Publishing (remember Harvard Graphics?), Data General, embedded systems software companies, and enterprise software suppliers. Ken is an active PMI member, Project Management Professional (PMP) certified, and a Certified ScrumMaster (CSM). Sources for LSM's material come from case studies, personal leadership experience, the PMI Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) and Ken's leadership books: Managing Software Maniacs, Principles of Software Development Leadership and I'm Not God, I'm Just a Project Manager.
What is the true cost of too much multitasking? Is there even a cost? Or is the ability to multitask just plain expected as you advance through the software development career path? You’ll learn what steps to take so that you and your team can become more effective at focusing on “getting to done”. This is an excerpt from I’m Not God, I’m Just a Project Manager by the author. (See bibliography below.)
Interruptions Are Bad!
Let’s pretend that you have far more work assigned to you and your team than is reasonable. Like all of us these days, we’re expected to juggle a bunch of balls in the air. Consider what Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister stated about the importance of maintaining focus in order to get things done. In their Peopleware book, they present a number of statistics regarding software developer productivity. Their results focus on software developer productivity, and not the typical factory worker productivity statistics that you see in other publications!
It may be your fault that a developer isn’t performing! If your working environment is noisy, offers no privacy and is prone to interruptions throughout the day, then I’d suggest saving leasing costs by closing down your office and starting over with everybody working from home and communicating with each other via the Internet. It would be better …
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"When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear." - Mark Twain |
