Being busy and still not delivering?

Article by: Przemysław Grzegorek

Have you ever received feedback or experienced any of the following:

1. We are all busy…

2. Project teams are working long hours delivering the solution.

3. We can’t take more work as we are overloaded.

And at the same time:

1. …and don’t have time to start anything new.

2. …hardly deliver solutions on time.

3. …it takes months to deliver a feasible solution to our customers.

Stockpile of Started Work

Bear in mind that you are not alone. There is nothing wrong with being busy. Having hundreds of engineers engaged in a business endeavor, working long hours with overtime, often leads to burnout or decreased motivation. Unfortunately, these are standard practices that have been unintentionally incorporated. We may end up stockpiling work, committing to new items with the expectation that they will be delivered soon. As a consequence, we end up with a great stockpile of started but undelivered items at the personal, team, or organizational level. How do we deal with this problem?

Kanban Pull System

The Kanban method comes into play with a solution that protects you from taking on more than you can handle. This can be applied at the personal, project team, or organizational level. The pull system is designed for scheduling and delivering work only when both demand exists and delivery capacity is available. In other words, execute a work item or request only when you have the capacity to do so. The system forces you to focus on delivering started items rather than starting new ones from the requirements or ideas list.

Stop Starting, Start Finishing

You or your teams should concentrate on getting started items done before starting new ones. It may sound controversial, but it helps manage the work in progress and demonstrates control over it to your customers and coworkers.

How to Manage It?

At your next team meeting in front of the Kanban board, ask your team members to go through the board from right to left, moving or even closing started items. This change in focus can be beneficial. Beginnings are always difficult to manage, but hold on… what about measuring closed items? Can we measure them over time? That will be the topic of another article I will write.

It’s a good practice to examine a new approach by running an experiment. Write down the hypothesis you want to test and ensure there is an appropriate duration for the experiment.

There are a few Kanban games that can help in understanding this subject, especially if you encounter resistance.

I’m happy to hear your feedback about the article, the pull system, and the experiments you are undertaking to prove it.