Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time

by Jeff Sutherland

And yet, we persist in driving and talking on the phone.

The literature is pretty clear on the topic, though: if you think you’re good at it, you’re actually worse than everyone else.

Perceptions of the ability to multi-task were found to be badly inflated; in fact, the majority of participants judged themselves to be above average in the ability to multi-task. These estimations had little grounding in reality. Thus, it appears that the people who are most likely to multi-task and most apt to use a cell phone while driving are those with the most inflated views of their abilities.3

In other words, the people who multitask the most just can’t focus. They can’t help themselves.

I should say “we.”

The key thing to remember is that...

It demonstrates just how wasteful it is.

Time yourself.

Here’s where the incredible amount of research done on software projects comes in handy again.

Quality Software Management

“Loss to Context Switching”

It’s why you couldn’t write the rows and columns at the same speed. It’s a result of the physical limitations of your brain.

“Dual Task Interference.”

Pashler theorized that there was some sort of processing bottleneck—that people can really only think about one thing at a time.

“packing up”

As a result, you don’t do it.

Your brain can’t process those two things at the same time.

The data show that it’s possible to think about two things at once only with one process running in each lobe of your brain.

Basically, there’s a control function, so you can’t argue with yourself too vigorously.6

Let’s call them A, B, and C.

the classic strategy—completing

They’re able to finish by the beginning of May.

Half.

And the other half? That’s pure waste. Not a thing more is produced. Not a dollar saved. Not a new innovation implemented. It is just a waste of human life. It’s working for no purpose.

What I want you to do, though, is be conscious of the cost of context switching.

It’s very real, and you should try to minimize it.

You must take into account dozens of factors, remember what you’ve done, where you want to go, and what the impediments might be.

You guessed it: that carefully built mental architecture collapses.

That’s the cost.

Put those tasks into blocks of time where it’s possible to shut off your phone and put up a “Do not disturb!” sign.

Some research has actually been done that shows that multitasking not only wastes your time but makes you stupid.

And, interestingly, the mean IQ scores of the subjects dropped by more than ten points when in distracting environments.

Even more interesting, the drop-off was worse for men than women. (Perhaps, for some reason, women are more habituated to distraction.)

Half Done Isn’t Done at All

As I’ve mentioned, Scrum takes a lot of its thinking from the Japanese manufacturing model that was codified in the classic book Toyota Production System by Taiichi Ohno.

“Lean”

Basically, the idea is to eliminate as much waste as possible on the factory floor.

“Work in Process,”

“inventory.”

The idea is that it’s wasteful to have a bunch of stuff lying around that isn’t being...

This changes how you look at things that are in process.

In Lean manufacturing, the idea is to minimize the amount of half-built stuff lying around.

“honey-do”

But the biggest mistake you can make is to try to do five

things at once.

partially

You’ve expended effort but haven’t created any value.

Doing half of something is, essentially, doing nothing.

“Done”

You’ve expended resources, effort, and time and gotten nothing to a deliverable state. You have a half-constructed car. It might have been better to create something smaller—something that really works.