Pomodora Relationship

I have a dirty little secret.  I have an on-again off-again love affair with the Pomodoro technique.  Though I deal with a wicked case of ADD, I seem to keep it in check, thanks in part to my Personal Kanban.  The other method I use, though I admit not as commonly, is a pomodoro timer.  When things get really bad, I break out the timer.  And ya know, things get back on track!  You'd think I would learn. If you find yourself reading this blog, you'll find that I'm a proponent of  using simple techniques to get things done.  If you're looking for me to do a deep dive on policy, process, and procedure, you're in the wrong place.

So, how do I get some of my work done?  [1] I limit my work in progress (WIP) and [2] I limit my time (timebox). When I do both, I tend to stay focused and deliver more. The pomodoro technique, like other techniques I like, is pretty darned simple.

So, let's talk about my Piggy Pomodoro!

1. Choose a task to be accomplished
2. Set the Pomodoro to 25 minutes (the Pomodoro is the timer)
3. Work on the task until the Pomodoro rings, annotate the task you were working on
4. Take a short break (I take 5 minutes)
5. Every 4 Pomodoros take a longer break (I take 10 minutes)

As part of this process, I'm moving tasks on my Kanban from Backlog to Work in Progress.  If I take a break, I move it to Blocked.  When I return, I move it back to Work in Progress.  This allows me to visualize what I'm working on and know what I was working on before my break.

Have a Kanban or Pomodoro story?  I would love to hear it.

Why do I use a Piggy, you ask?  Because tomatoes give me gas and Chickens would just be wrong.

Image:  Amazon

Agile Shopping List

I was over at the AgileScout website and found a humorous post. The title was Agile Products for Sale - What's Worth Buying. Eric Laramée from Agile Partnership made a comment and got me thinking.  Why aren't more retailers jumping on the bandwagon to offer "Agile" products?

What got us started was a listing on Amazon for a ($12.50) pack of 50 pack of Story Cards. Now, I'm not going to say anything bad about this product. I actually think it's clever they are offering a product like this.  Those who have been doing Agile for more than one iteration probably have multiple packs of ($1.95) 100 pack 3x5 index cards sitting on their desks.

In no particular order, here is a list of "Agile" products I found on Amazon.  Yes, all of these links are going to an Amazon affiliate account.  I figured I would give it a try.

Agile Shopping List

• Index Cards, 3 X 5 Inches I have 3x5's in my pockets, in my desk, on my desk...
• White Dry Erase Board The white board at my desk is used as my personal kanban.
• Pomodoro Timer I opted for the piggy timer because I have skin in the game
• Post-it® Notes I love my post-it notes!
• CoffeeYou can never have enough coffee or Mountain Dew around the office
• Lysol Disinfectant Spray If you work in an open workspace, you need this

Not on Amazon, are Mountain Goat Software planning poker cards.  What can I say, I love these cards.

So, what's on your Agile shopping list?  Feel free to add a comment.

Like the image?  Find them at Pictofigo

Why Ask Why

Before you spend the next week, redesigning the TPS report, you need to stop and ask yourself a simple question.

Why?

Why are you doing it?   If you can not map the task back to a stakeholder or customer objective/requirement (goal) you better stop now.  Some people call this gold-plating.  Additionally if you can not map the task back to one of your personal goals, you better stop now.  I call that flushing time down a toilet.

Do you sometimes feel like you're rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic?  Are you spending all of your time doing stuff that is not getting you any closer the real goal?  Well, stop for a minute and pretend you are a 5-year-old.

Whenever you ask a 5-year-old to do something, they never seem to do it without first asking why.

Go sit down Why?

Because it's dinner time. Why?

Because you need to eat your dinner. Why?

Because I don't want child protective services saying we don't feed you. Why?

Because we're trying to get you to adulthood without scarring you too much.

What's our main personal goal as it relates to our son?

Goal 1: Get him to adulthood without scarring him too much

Now, as project managers and leaders, what are your primary goals? Is it keep the project on schedule? Is it keep the project from going over budget? Or, is it one of the 12 principles of the Agile Manifesto?  Whatever your answer(s), when asked to do something, keep asking why until you reach your main goal(s).

We want to add this change to the next deployed version Why?

Because it is now a priority Why?

Because it will either save time, money, or both

What's one of our documented goals related to our project?

Goal 1: Our highest priority is to satisfy the customer through early and continuous delivery of valuable software.

Like the image?  Find it at Pictofigo

The Funnel Effect and My Kanban

GuyKawasaki tweeted about a really cool infographic on Alltop titled Why freeways come to a stop. I checked it out and what most interested me was the graphic The funnel effect (I circled it in red).

WIP

The funnel effect is a really good analogy of why you should limit your work in progress, like I do on my Personal Kanban.  In the analogy, just the right amount of water can go through as fast as it's put into the funnel.  But add extra water to the funnel, and the whole thing backs up.

Personal Kanban

In reality, keeping focus on just the right amount of work can allow you to finish more than if you didn't. Personally, I limit my work in progress to 3 items. I never thought it would have such a positive impact. So, what do you have to lose? Do you have a long list of to-do's, doing a little here and doing a little there?  Do you ever feel like you're not actually getting anything done?  Today, rather than trying to multitask, focus on just a few tasks until they are DONE. If you complete one task, you can add another to your focus list. Remember, 99% done is still not done.  At the end of the day, you'll feel a sense of accomplishment, preventing a traffic jam of work and actually getting stuff done.

My Personal Kanban 2.0

I commonly get asked what I personally use to manage my work. The answer is almost too simple. I use a Personal Kanban. Now, I'm no efficiency guru. I'm no expert on Kanban. I just need a simple system that satisfies a few requirements and makes sense to me.

Personal Kanban

Requirements

1. I need something visual to combat my ADD.

2. It must visually capture all of my Backlog of work.

3. I will help me visualize what Work is In Progress.

4. It allows me (and others) to see what got Done this week.

Now, I've been using task boards for probably half a decade now. When you have that one stakeholder who cruises by your office or cube (constantly) and asks what you're working on, you can point at the wall and not even look up from your monitor. The board proves its worth just by cutting down on those people interrupting your day.  After a while, people get used to knowing what's going on and appreciate the transparency.  It's strange that I need to point that out.  Who benefits by not embracing transparency?  That may be a question left to the comments.

The key difference between a Kanban board and a regular task board is a column limiting your work in progress.  My first exposure to this was from a Scrum Master training session being led by Sanjiv Augustine. Sanjiv displayed a PowerPoint slide of what appeared to be a Los Angeles freeway.  During rush-hour, the number of vehicles coming onto the freeway is limited (by on-ramp lights).  This attempt to control the volume of traffic flow onto the freeway allows vehicles already on the freeway to move at a faster pace and in turn exit the freeway.  This visual freeway analogy was like a light bulb moment for me.  When I got back to the office and began limiting my Work In Progress (WIP), I did indeed increase my delivery rate.  The days of multitasking are now in my past!

Jim Benson

Soon after I started using a Kanban, I met Jim Benson of Modus Cooperandi.  I would describe Jim as a Kanban Sensei.  If you ever want to know more about Kanbans, Jim's your man.  Go check out the  Personal Kanban website.  Though Kanban is kind of a background business process to me, I still check out the site from time to time to see how others are using Kanban.

Tool

To wrap this up, there's only one "tech" tool I use to bridge the gap between my home and office.  It's call AgileZen.  AgileZen is a Kanban web application.  Though I have all of my work  work on my Kanban board at the office, my wife would frown on seeing a wall of post-it notes next to my desk at home.  So, I use AgileZen to manage both my personal and work tasks while away from the office.  Some people may choose to just use the electronic version.  I just can't let go of the satisfaction of moving a post-it note from WIP to Done.

Graphic: Pictofigo

Dr. Seuss Inspired by Personal Kanban

I met Jim Benson about a year or so ago.  He was in Washington DC and I met him for lunch down in Chinatown.  Jim's a pretty smart cookie.  I like what he does.  I sometimes wish I could do what he does but it requires a little more of a balanced mind than I possess.  In the Star Wars universe, Jim would be a Kanban Jedi and I would be a mere Padawan. I used kanban and limited my work-in-progress (WIP) at a previous job but don't have the buyin from my current client to implement the practice here.  I still have a Kanban board hanging on my wall but it's there for me to manage my own work.

Today I read an article on the Personal Kanban website titled "Would You, Could You on a Plane?" It was about a quick offline kanban for in-flight work.  It was informative, as always.  But, the mere title inspired me to write a bit of a ridiculous comment.  Perhaps I read too much Dr. Seuss during my off-time.

Say! I like Kanban! I do! I like it, Sam-I-am! And I would limit WIP in a boat. And I would limit WIP with a goat. And I will limit WIP in the rain. And in the dark. And on a train. And in a car. And in a tree. Limiting WIP is so good so good you see!

So I will limit WIP in a box. And I will limit WIP with a fox. And I will limit WIP in a house. And I will limit WIP with a mouse. And I will limit WIP here and there. Say! I will limit WIP ANYWHERE!

I do so like Limiting WIP and Kanban! Thank you! Thank you, Sam-I-am

Strange how a simple title can get me started.  Thank you Jim for doing what you do, even if that means reading ridiculousness comments that I write.

My Merge of GTD and Kanban

I'm not going sit here an boast of being some kind of expert on Kanban or guru of personal productivity.  I'm just a Project Manager/Leader who is always keeping his eyes and ears open for newer or better ways to manage time or work.  I believe you should always try to eliminate non-value-added processes, resulting in a positive impact of customer satisfaction, while reducing support costs.  How do you do that?  You get it done as effectively and efficiently as possible. I recently completed Getting Things Done by David Allen.  It was an interesting book.  Though I use paperless processes to "get things done", David offered one bit of advice that resonated with me.  To advance a task or activity to more of an actionable conclusion, he said to ask "What's the next action?"

This parallels what I do with my Kanban (task) board.  I currently have 4 columns:  Backlog, Work In Progress (WIP), Blocked, Done.  When a prioritized task can not be worked, I put the task card (user story) in the "blocked" column.  I then ask myself the question.  What's the next action? Without asking yourself that simple question, your task may be blocked longer than necessary.  You have to understand there may be 3 or 4 steps you need to complete before you can unblock your task and get it back to WIP.  So, ask the question.

As to not ignore the obvious, I recommend you write your tasks in a standard user story format.As a [perspective], I want to [activity], so I can [desired outcome]

It doesn't matter if you use a physical or virtual Kanban (task) board.  I recommend following 3 simple rules:

1. Keep your tasks visible

2. Keep your tasks limited

3. Keep your tasks actionable

Starting Is Easy; Finishing Is Hard

I once saw (via video podcast) a wise man (Jason Calacanis) say "starting is easy; finishing is hard." When he said that, it was a moment of absolute clarity for me.  I'm not saying he verbalized the meaning of life.  He did state, however, what I've often conceptualized but was never able to verbalize.

What Jason stated in 6 words is what I've seen many colleagues struggle with.  Who doesn't have projects and tasks to complete and deadlines to meet?   I've tried multitasking, thinking it would make me more efficient.  I've tried using a productivity pyramid.   All I did was start more tasks, not finish more.  That's the key right there.  It doesn't matter how many things you start if you never finish them.

The solution to my past problems has been the use of kanbans, referring to them as information radiators.  These information radiators were large billboards strategically placed around the office so anyone could passively see the status of the current project.  You could see what the highest priority was, what was currently being completed, and what was being delayed.

I believe the key to those successes was in the ability to visualize our work.  Everyone knew exactly what they needed to complete and everyone else knew if it was getting done.  People were not allowed to go on to ancillary activities until their assigned tasks were completed.  Another important facet of the kanban, we limited our work-in-progress.  This forced-focus on limited tasks and constant feedback loop is very powerful and very productive.

If you would like to read my complete guest post at the Personal Kanban website, on how I visualize my work and FINISH it (don't forget the comments), just follow the [link].