The document discusses how interruptions can significantly reduce productivity. It notes that a single interruption of just 10 minutes can lead to over 30 minutes of lost time getting back to a complex task. It also shares that in the first 76 minutes of work, only 11 minutes were spent on the actual task due to interruptions. The document advocates limiting work in progress to reduce wait times, making all work visible even if it's ad hoc requests, and measuring and trending data to understand productivity impacts.

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September 2018

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Chris Dunn
Agile Coach @ Nelnet
cdunn@5280solutions.com
@csdunn

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11 minutes before interrupted
25 minutes to regain the point before interruption
9% margin of error rate (uninterrupted)
15% margin of error rate (interrupted)

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Arrive at 9 am Monday morning… Read emails, get coffee, warm up
9:30 am… Begin a complex task
9:41 am… Interruption, “How was your weekend?”
9:51 am… Get back at your complex task
10:16 am… finally back in your “groove”
That’s 35 minutes of lost time by a single interruption!
In the first 76 minutes, only 11 minutes of
productive task work

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Tend to underestimate distractions…
And say YES to requests we should
decline

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1. I don’t want to let the team down

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2. I’d rather start something new than toil in
something unglamorous

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3. I didn’t realize how big the request was

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4. The boss asked me

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demand
capacity

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Congested FLOW

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• Context switching is common
• We start new tasks before finishing older tasks
• Work gets neglected and ages

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An interruption – usually to fix a problem
Ex: Break fix, support tickets, risk mitigation

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• If you don’t use WIP limits, start!
• Let WIP limits be a creative friendly constraint
• Limit WIP to the team’s capacity
• Remember: High WIP = high wait times because
other items sit waiting for attention
Take charge of WIP

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• Make work visible
• Yes, even the “drive-by” requests
• Understand the source of all work done by the
team and what slows FLOW
Measure All Work

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Trend the Data

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Trend the Data

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