A presentation at re:develop in in Bournemouth, UK by Dominika Rogala
Things you wish you shared with your team before they agreed on that deadline Dominika Rogala @RogalaDominika VECTOR TECHNOLOGIES
@RogalaDominika #redev18
5 things your team needs to know before they agree on a deadline @RogalaDominika #redev18
UK 2018: 253 working days YEAR = 8 months work + holidays + weekends @RogalaDominika #redev18
Work takes a week… Junior dev: I have 7 days! Experienced dev: I have 5 days! Truly: ... @RogalaDominika #redev18
YEAR < 250 days MONTH < 20 days WEEK < 5 days @RogalaDominika #redev18
We’re not robots. sometimes we get sick. sometimes we are tired. sometimes we have a bad day. Yet we often plan as if we were perfectly regulated robots. @RogalaDominika #redev18
Let’s see some other differences between people and robots: @RogalaDominika #redev18
@RogalaDominika #redev18
tomorrow P! A R T IT’S A noun A mystical land where 99% of all human productivity, motivation and achievement is stored. @RogalaDominika #redev18
Today we procrastinate. How much? 2 hours. A day. @RogalaDominika #redev18
“In the meantime” actually takes time. @RogalaDominika #redev18
meantime P! A R T IT’S A noun A mystical land where 99% of all human focus is stored. @RogalaDominika #redev18
Travelling through mystical lands steals Next mystical land that Tomorrow, context-swithing meantime, context-switching (between)... time: P! A R T IT’S A @RogalaDominika #redev18
Gerald Weinberg’s rule of thumb - cost of context switching. @RogalaDominika #redev18
Are your teams working on one project at a time? Lucky them! And lucky you ;) Are they working on two or more? Here’s the cost you pay for it. As long as you can’t do anything about it, remind them to add this cost in estimations. @RogalaDominika #redev18
P! A R T IT’S A Things we can’t predict @RogalaDominika #redev18
@RogalaDominika #redev18
Traps: Tomorrow “In the meantime” Context-switching Things we don’t know… … what’s your trap? @RogalaDominika #redev18
Documentation… It’s easy to forget about it in estimations so make sure people on your team remember about this silent hero. @RogalaDominika #redev18
Estimations. Planning. Specifying requirements. Is this even real work? @RogalaDominika #redev18
@RogalaDominika #redev18
How about outsourcing? Isn’t it what we use when we want to speed up development? Yes, that’s right. But it’s always at a cost of team’s time. @RogalaDominika #redev18
Why do we always meet for Christmas Dinner on time but miss other deadlines? @RogalaDominika #redev18
@RogalaDominika #redev18
Christmas Dinner Priority: Time @RogalaDominika #redev18
What are your priorities? Product quality? User experience? Money? Does your team know? @RogalaDominika #redev18
Everyone has a default priority that they will use if no other is clearly defined. @RogalaDominika #redev18
@RogalaDominika #redev18
We work less than we think We are humans Traps steal time All work counts Share top priority @RogalaDominika #redev18
Time. Humans. Traps. Work. Priorities. @RogalaDominika #redev18
How to make sure people in your team know all these things, and remember it in the right moment? @RogalaDominika #redev18
Talk about time Talking about estimations creates common understanding of time. Everyone is involved and thus we constantly improve our teams’ estimation abilities. @RogalaDominika #redev18
Let them guess Create a culture of blameless improvement. Always make it clear if we’re estimating or declaring a binding deadline (team & outside). @RogalaDominika #redev18
Estimation is not declaration @RogalaDominika #redev18
Ask about buffers @RogalaDominika #redev18
Add buffers for Maternity/paternity leaves Sick leaves Days around holidays @RogalaDominika #redev18
Add buffers for Skiing season New joiners Irregular known unknowns @RogalaDominika #redev18
Iterate and reflect Use what you already have (sprint planning, retros) to talk about time. @RogalaDominika #redev18
Share Interesting resources, your planning techniques, mistakes you made… Oh, an you can share this talk. Here’s a 10-minutes video @RogalaDominika #redev18
Time. Humans. Traps. Work. Priorities. @RogalaDominika #redev18
If you want your team to agree on deadlines they will meet make sure they know what you know. @RogalaDominika #redev18
Estimating time is like packing for a long holiday. No matter how hard you try, you always feel like you forgot something important.
We all know how hard it is to estimate time and amount of work needed to complete a project. We’ve all been there - our teams missed deadlines, and not because they didn’t work hard enough.
With experience we get better in estimating, but most often we need to rely on our team to do that. Let’s explore some factors that may not be obvious to developers. We’ll talk about how much we really work during a month, why research takes more than anyone expects and how Chinese New Year may destroy your plans.
Here’s what was said about this presentation on social media.
How have I not seen this chart before?! Great info from @RogalaDominika about productivity loss due to context switching in projects. #redev18 pic.twitter.com/iexFkvSKE3
— Tom Geraghty (@tom_geraghty) October 12, 2018
We're feeling much better equipped for our next deadline following @RogalaDominika's timely talk ⌚ #redev18 pic.twitter.com/MUJoqkucS7
— re:develop conf 2018 (@redevelopconf) October 12, 2018
Love this 😊 Nice session from @RogalaDominika at #redev18 pic.twitter.com/eC9gX5gcHB
— John Le Drew (@antz29) October 12, 2018
Great start so far.. loved @rogaladominika’s talk - feel like all PMs should watch it. “Estimation is not declaration” - if someone says they think it’ll take x time, that shouldn’t be used as a definitive quote #redev18
— matt northam ᴹᴺ (@mattnortham) October 12, 2018
Lunchtime at #redev18. So far the talks have all been cool. Giving me things to think about, and maybe disagree with over a drink later :-) Thank you @ThorMitchell @RogalaDominika @StickyWilliams @antz29 pic.twitter.com/mJyRvSytp9
— Stuart Langridge (@sil) October 12, 2018
The second talk by @RogalaDominika was about how a working week isn’t as long as you think when you take into account the distractions that happen in the office, meetings, planning and the human tendancy to procrastinate until tomorrow pic.twitter.com/ukkvvE23dk
— Simon Smale (@simonsmale) October 12, 2018