One of the most difficult things for me is saying no. This is true both personally and professionally. The volume of work, the desire to please others, and the number of interesting and great ideas makes it difficult to decide what should be done first and what should not be done at all.
DevOps has a principle that has helped me understand the cost of doing too many things simultaneously. The principle states that to get things done faster and with higher quality, you must limit your work in progress (WIP).
To illustrate why this is true, it is useful to play a simple game. I have played this game with my team and at conferences and it is highly effective way to learn this concept.
The Name Game
Each person playing the game needs to have five crayons/markers in different colors and this worksheet with 5 customer names. The goal of the game is to write the five customer names as quickly as possible after the timekeeper starts the clock.
- Round 1
- Each player estimates how long it will take to write the five names and records their estimate at the top of the page.
- Before starting, gather requirements:
- Each customer wants their name in a different color.
- Mark the desired color next to each customer’s name.
- You must handle all customers’ expectations to their satisfaction.
- Never keep a customer waiting because that is bad business.
- The earlier you start something, the earlier you finish.
- In this round:
- As soon as the stopwatch starts, begin all customers’ projects.
- Write the first letter of the first customer in their desired color, then write the first letter of the second customer in their desired color, etc.
- When the first letter of each customer is written, go back and start writing the second letter of each customer in their desired color, etc.
- Keep writing all customers’ letters one at a time in the desired color until all customers have received their name.
- Once you are finished, check your work! Fix any names that are incorrect.
- If all names are complete and correct, look at the stopwatch and write down your time on your paper.
- Round 2
- Before starting, gather requirements:
- Each customer wants their name in a different color.
- Mark the desired color next to each customer’s name.
- Your organization has implemented a DevOps practice and limited the WIP to 1.
- You are only allowed to work on one customer name at a time.
- In this round:
- As soon as the clock starts, you start the first customer’s project.
- Write the customers’ name in their desired color.
- After writing the first customer’s name, check your work. Make corrections as necessary.
- You can only start on the next customer’s name when the previous customer’s name is complete and correct.
- Once all names are complete and correct, look at the stopwatch and write down your time on your paper.
- Before starting, gather requirements:
- Reflection
- After playing the game, talk about the experience and examine what you learned and how you can apply what you learned to your work environment.
Whenever I do this game, people acknowledge that the ground rules in Round 1 are much closer to our normal work environment, and it is very stressful. The biggest revelation is that no one has a better outcome in Round 1 over Round 2. Round 1 takes 4 to 5 times longer for every customer, produces sloppier outcomes, and stresses out the person doing the work.
The name game shows the effect of switching when performing a simple task. The projects we ask our teams to do are much more complex with high cognitive switching costs.
I would encourage you to do the exercise with your team and ask, “How can I limit the work in progress for me and my team?”