Sustainable Work Pace

Some organizations are notorious for their “death march” mentality, i.e. driving people beyond their limits, then, upon reaching a goal, immediately starting the next marathon. A number of years ago I worked for one such organization. It was not uncommon to arrive at the office to see people sleeping on the floor, having worked through the night, in some cases for a few days running. The company even took a few pictures of the "campers" and hung them on the wall as a trophy of sorts. People would wear their strings of 300+ hour months like badges of honor. The irony was not only that many of these projects were failures, but that the company experienced pretty severe turnover, especially when the stock tanked and the golden handcuffs disappeared. Most condemning, a number of my former co-workers, disillusioned by their experiences, left the IT industry altogether to become real estate agents, dentists, clergy, etc.

Advantages of a Sustainable Work Pace

Agile addresses the need for a sustainable work pace. As stated in the principles behind the Agile Manifesto:

Agile processes promote sustainable development. The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely.

The advantages of a sane work schedule are obvious, such as having time for hobbies, friends and family, and “sharpening the saw” so that one returns to work the next day recharged and effective.

Making a Sustainable Work Pace Possible

So how do you make the reasonable work schedule possible? There are probably lots of good suggestions (feel free to comment), but here are some that I recommend:

• Estimate accurately – A key to a reasonable work schedule is estimating work realistically. If your estimates are far too aggressive, you have often doomed your team to a death march. Make sure that you account for a requirements fudge factor and the unknown roadblocks that inevitably pop up.
• Defend your estimates – Everyone has seen at least one project where serious thought has gone into the estimates only for management to aggressively “negotiate” the estimates down. Nothing shoots holes in a team’s morale and ability to delivery a quality product on time like an impossible deadline. At the end of the day, the project is usually completed as originally estimated, but with the lower estimates as the baseline, the target is missed and the team is demoralized. You must be willing to defend your estimates up front. Using the Time, Scope, and Resources variables, you can work with the customer to come to a feasible plan. Read Agile and the Triangle for more details.
• Deliver – Once you have worked with the customer on delivery expectations you need to deliver! A benefit of Agile is that the various best practices (iterative development, daily standup meetings around a project board, etc) help the team maintain a tight focus and high productivity, thereby enabling the team to nail their deliverables while working at a sustainable pace.

So does this mean you should force everyone to go home as soon as they have worked their 8 hours? Then will you follow them home to make sure they aren't working? Where does the madness stop?! Again, I love how Agile is not dogmatic in this way. Some people like to work a bit longer some days to knock something out before they head home. Some like to work an extra hour from home at night to get a bit ahead. There are also the occasional situations where everyone works longer for a few days to nail an important deliverable. The spirit of the law is to create iteration plans that enable reasonable work days. The result is a team with the proper work and personal life balance that will keep them focused, productive, and happy, and increases the odds that they'll want to hang around.