Handling the Unpredictable

Theoretically people are supposed to keep their efforts focussed on one project. Task switching is incredibly wasteful and there is a fairly large amount of empirical data to back that up. But what happens when you have no choice? The other day one of these scenarios reared it's ugly head around here. There is a product that was frozen in development due to external client dependencies. Then the logjam broke. Then one of the sales people sold it to a big customer before knowing it wasn't ready to ship.

So now we have to get this done, but all the resources are mid-cycle on another important project. What to do? Well, what you don't do is what our QA manager suggested: pull everyone off the current project to work on this new, more important project. Major no-no. Also why his team feels constantly over-taxed; he doesn't know how to handle complexity.

The most important thing is to maintain continuity and flow within existing projects.
1. Finish tasks in the current time box. Don't allow people to thrash on different projects.

2. Attempt to stall and buy time so resources may be adjusted at a new planning point. Otherwise you will precipitate failure in both projects.

3. Isolate resource re-allocation. Identify one or two people to re-dedicate to this new initiative fully instead of slicing off 30% of everyone's time. A full missing resource is easier to predict than a 30% drag on all resources.

4. When re-planning adjust your projected velocity based on new resourcing. Don't forget and pick the same amount of work.