5 ms·

Tracking where your time went with Lego workstream visualisation

127 points by touristtam 9y ago

oeuviz 9y ago
Great idea, just still looking for a brick color for 'stacking lego bricks as a distraction'?
- Freak_NL 9y ago
  Possibly transparent 4×2×1 bricks for time spent doing bugger all (or just taking a longer break after some taxing task or stressful situation). I think Lego Friends may have some suitable bricks for the usual Friday afternoon (down)time spent with colleagues watching someone launch an electric car into orbit or some other definitely not work-related activity. :)
  - walshemj 9y ago
    You mean like programming a pi to run a robotic arm to stak the bricks :-)
    - Freak_NL 9y ago
      Exactly! That, and actually ordering the bricks on Bricklink and implementing Lego workstream visualization for your dev-team. :)
oneeyedpigeon 9y ago
It begs the question: would a digital equivalent work just as well? What does the physical version bring - 3d? If this helps to visualise the data, are there decent tools for collaborative 3d graph editing that include the ability to move the camera, etc.? The article says: "Next up we tried an Excel document, but no one looks forward to tracking their time in an Excel document. We wanted something visual and tactile. Something that would cause conversations to happen and be fun to use." which I totally take on board, but the lego equivalent, however fun it might be, just might not always be practical. Essentially, I'm thinking is there an equivalent that's less like Excel and more like Minecraft ;-)
- sokoloff 9y ago
  The physical version brings a level of ritual/ceremony that I suspect is helpful. It's the discussion and change out of the digital into physical that's more value than the colorful output I suspect.
- ccozan 9y ago
  What if, instead of normal Lego bricks, someone designs a "smart" brick and a "smart" Lego Board, so that while you add bricks of different colors, and put on different columns, it creates a digital twin on a server, that is nicely displayed on a dashboard of your choice? Same fun, right?
  - icebraining 9y ago
    Sounds like a good project for https://dynamicland.org/ https://dynamicland.org/
  - 4ndr3vv 9y ago
    something similar.. http://www.bit-planner.com/ http://www.bit-planner.com/ its a lego calendar synced to a digital calendar
jaymzcampbell 9y ago
I really like this. For certain industries & situations, you really do need a visual way to represent where your time is going. I've found this to be an area lots of developers seem openly hostile too. I used to do something similar with post-it notes segmented into quarters. This was at an agency where we were working on fixed price/deadline projects. Another commenter here asked if a digital version would be as good. From my own experience, when we digitized the post-it notes it just became another reporting/time tracking setup. The physical aspect of it made it very obvious to the project/product managers as they were stuck up in on a whiteboard in the middle of the office. When things started spilling off the edge and all the way over the wall [1] then it was pretty obvious something was up :) We also used the placing of them to kick off standup in the morning. It was important to remind ourselves/higher-ups that the tracking wasn't meant to be very detailed/accurate but instead indicative and a springboard to guide the weeks planning conversations. To that end, I think it was very effective. [1] https://i.imgur.com/1PdBiX7.jpg https://i.imgur.com/1PdBiX7.jpg
- Karunamon 9y ago
  Developers seem hostile to it because these kinds of metrics are universally used against them. As long as the goals are being met, this amounts to pointless micromanagement. If it’s a developer doing this for themselves, that’s something else entirely.
  - oligopoly 9y ago
    Usually those problems stay in the background while not working on the clock and your subconscious comes up with solutions.
esseti 9y ago
Out of curisoity, let's say that someone come up with a new request, that is listed as ad-hoc. how long does it take before it becomse a "planned" work? what's the distinguish between the two? As far as I understood you are a dev, so everyhting that is not related with the development of your software is considered as ad-hoc?
- nulagrithom 9y ago
  I consider it ad-hoc when the request escapes the planning phase and goes directly in to my pile of work as top/near top priority. A little bit of this is understandable. You can't wait for every task to get put in to the backlog and planned out in sprints or whatever. But if you've ever had a week where 90% of your time goes to everything but planned work well... it's really frustrating. There's often a high cost to context switching for developers. There's been some loose "studies" done that confirm this, and I definitely feel it at a personal level. A "quick request" isn't just the half hour it takes me to do the thing. It's the language switch, the environment switch, forgetting what I was in the middle of, etc, that really causes the bulk of my productivity loss. It gets to the point sometimes where I give two time estimates: one where I'm allowed to shut my door and work, and one where I factor in the likely torrent of interruptions that will more than double my actual completion time.
- jones1618 9y ago
  nulagrithom's answer was really good and true but here's maybe a simpler way to put it: "planned work" is really "prioritized and agreed to" work. "ad-hoc" work is just the urgent priority of (usually) one person. After years of dealing with the conflict, I've found the easiest answer is always "I'd be happy to give you what you need. Which of these planned tasks from you (or your boss) are you willing to sacrifice or postpone for your urgent task?" 80% of the time that's enough. If not, you walk them over to their boss and ask them the same question. Then, you can go back to your desk and work and let them hash it out or hash it out with your boss to convert this "ad-hoc" request into a "agreed to, planned request."
bitwize 9y ago
You're not really doing Agile until you're meticulously tracking each hour spent. If this sort of thing helps, so be it. But those hours have to get into JIRA somehow.
- sillyquiet 9y ago
  Are you being sarcastic? I ask because Agile methodology, when done correctly as a bi-directional contract between team and stakeholders, does not have to be like that at all.
  - bitwize 9y ago
    At any organization whose business model has evolved beyond "burn through investors' money, ask investors for more money", management NEEDS to have meaningful answers to these questions: * What remains to be done? * How much will it cost? * How long will it take? * Is the team on track or falling behind? Forget contracts. Answers to these questions are non-negotiable for the team. Because the PM or engineering manager will be held accountable for those answers by the executives. The best way to provide those answers is to adopt a data-driven approach. You have stories in the backlog. At the start of each sprint, the developer(s) to whom the stories are assigned break the story down into tasks and assign an estimate IN HOURS to each task. As the tasks are completed throughout the sprint, each developer logs how many hours they spent on that task, preferably daily. This amplifies the benefits of Agile because the manager doesn't have to guess, they can look at the burndown chart and see -- are the developers meeting their estimates? If not, by how much are they missing? Are they taking on an appropriate amount of work each sprint? Should they do less? More? Who is doing well and who is struggling? Then, decisions can be made with respect to who should do how much work on what, with rapid turnaround time. "If it can't be measured, it can't be managed." This is fundamental to management, and has been a maxim in software management even during the Waterfall days. What Agile gets you is shortened feedback cycles and more rapid turnaround.
    - ryanbrunner 9y ago
      Your system makes two assumptions that have been thoroughly, repeatedly proven wrong: - It's possible to know what tasks are required to complete a project at the outset of a project. - It's possible to estimate how long those tasks will take to complete. Any team I've ever seen who claims to do well with both of the above points either had massive sandbagging problems, sometimes openly acknowledged by everyone, and often failed to deliver the best solution they could due to the rigidity of their project plan and the political consequences of straying from it. Furthermore, "if it can't be measured, it can't be managed" is true to a degree, but over-reliance on metrics can result in tunnel vision towards those metrics, resulting in accumulation of technical debt, quality issues, less team cohesion and a host of other problems as your teams myopically focus on hitting their numbers above all else.
matte_black 9y ago
If you could set up this system with a series of internet connected scales for each category, you can take the weight of the bricks from different work areas around the company and know in real time what people are doing while simultaneously recording the information in physical lego form.
- karlmdavis 9y ago
  You forgot the <sarcasm/> tags, I think (I hope).
  - matte_black 9y ago
    Not really. You could skip legos all together and have 3D printers that print out layers of work over time as well, no need to measure weight then as you track it through an API.
WhiteOwlLion 9y ago
dork
gd2 9y ago
I like the physical simplicity of one hour equals a colored block. I've got minor quibbles so will modify it, but good idea.
codemac 9y ago
Reminds me of the Printable CEO stuff by Dave Seah: https://davidseah.com/2005/11/the-printable-ceo-series/ https://davidseah.com/2005/11/the-printable-ceo-series/ Can't recommend this stuff enough, and it's buffet style - take what you like.
rb808 9y ago
BTW Lego sells individual bricks which I'm finding is much better than all those kits. https://shop.lego.com/en-US/Pick-a-Brick https://shop.lego.com/en-US/Pick-a-Brick You can search for pieces eg BRICK 2x4, which are 21c each. Also ebay has loads of used lego pieces which are super cheap.
- andrepd 9y ago
  You can try bricklink too: www.bricklink.com
detritus 9y ago
In a similar vein, but with a bit of complexity in the background... http://specialprojects.studio/project/bit-planner/ http://specialprojects.studio/project/bit-planner/ "Bit Planner is a physical and digital time planner made out of lego bricks that magically synchronises with any cloud based calendar to help you better organise your projects and get more out of every day."

127 points by touristtam 9y ago

oeuviz 9y ago

Great idea, just still looking for a brick color for 'stacking lego bricks as a distraction'?

Freak_NL 9y ago
Possibly transparent 4×2×1 bricks for time spent doing bugger all (or just taking a longer break after some taxing task or stressful situation). I think Lego Friends may have some suitable bricks for the usual Friday afternoon (down)time spent with colleagues watching someone launch an electric car into orbit or some other definitely not work-related activity. :)
- walshemj 9y ago
  You mean like programming a pi to run a robotic arm to stak the bricks :-)
  - Freak_NL 9y ago
    Exactly! That, and actually ordering the bricks on Bricklink and implementing Lego workstream visualization for your dev-team. :)

oneeyedpigeon 9y ago

It begs the question: would a digital equivalent work just as well? What does the physical version bring - 3d? If this helps to visualise the data, are there decent tools for collaborative 3d graph editing that include the ability to move the camera, etc.? The article says: "Next up we tried an Excel document, but no one looks forward to tracking their time in an Excel document. We wanted something visual and tactile. Something that would cause conversations to happen and be fun to use." which I totally take on board, but the lego equivalent, however fun it might be, just might not always be practical. Essentially, I'm thinking is there an equivalent that's less like Excel and more like Minecraft ;-)

sokoloff 9y ago
The physical version brings a level of ritual/ceremony that I suspect is helpful. It's the discussion and change out of the digital into physical that's more value than the colorful output I suspect.
ccozan 9y ago
What if, instead of normal Lego bricks, someone designs a "smart" brick and a "smart" Lego Board, so that while you add bricks of different colors, and put on different columns, it creates a digital twin on a server, that is nicely displayed on a dashboard of your choice? Same fun, right?
- icebraining 9y ago
  Sounds like a good project for https://dynamicland.org/ https://dynamicland.org/
- 4ndr3vv 9y ago
  something similar.. http://www.bit-planner.com/ http://www.bit-planner.com/ its a lego calendar synced to a digital calendar

jaymzcampbell 9y ago

I really like this. For certain industries & situations, you really do need a visual way to represent where your time is going. I've found this to be an area lots of developers seem openly hostile too. I used to do something similar with post-it notes segmented into quarters. This was at an agency where we were working on fixed price/deadline projects. Another commenter here asked if a digital version would be as good. From my own experience, when we digitized the post-it notes it just became another reporting/time tracking setup. The physical aspect of it made it very obvious to the project/product managers as they were stuck up in on a whiteboard in the middle of the office. When things started spilling off the edge and all the way over the wall [1] then it was pretty obvious something was up :) We also used the placing of them to kick off standup in the morning. It was important to remind ourselves/higher-ups that the tracking wasn't meant to be very detailed/accurate but instead indicative and a springboard to guide the weeks planning conversations. To that end, I think it was very effective. [1] https://i.imgur.com/1PdBiX7.jpg https://i.imgur.com/1PdBiX7.jpg

Karunamon 9y ago
Developers seem hostile to it because these kinds of metrics are universally used against them. As long as the goals are being met, this amounts to pointless micromanagement. If it’s a developer doing this for themselves, that’s something else entirely.
- oligopoly 9y ago
  Usually those problems stay in the background while not working on the clock and your subconscious comes up with solutions.

esseti 9y ago

Out of curisoity, let's say that someone come up with a new request, that is listed as ad-hoc. how long does it take before it becomse a "planned" work? what's the distinguish between the two? As far as I understood you are a dev, so everyhting that is not related with the development of your software is considered as ad-hoc?

nulagrithom 9y ago
I consider it ad-hoc when the request escapes the planning phase and goes directly in to my pile of work as top/near top priority. A little bit of this is understandable. You can't wait for every task to get put in to the backlog and planned out in sprints or whatever. But if you've ever had a week where 90% of your time goes to everything but planned work well... it's really frustrating. There's often a high cost to context switching for developers. There's been some loose "studies" done that confirm this, and I definitely feel it at a personal level. A "quick request" isn't just the half hour it takes me to do the thing. It's the language switch, the environment switch, forgetting what I was in the middle of, etc, that really causes the bulk of my productivity loss. It gets to the point sometimes where I give two time estimates: one where I'm allowed to shut my door and work, and one where I factor in the likely torrent of interruptions that will more than double my actual completion time.
jones1618 9y ago
nulagrithom's answer was really good and true but here's maybe a simpler way to put it: "planned work" is really "prioritized and agreed to" work. "ad-hoc" work is just the urgent priority of (usually) one person. After years of dealing with the conflict, I've found the easiest answer is always "I'd be happy to give you what you need. Which of these planned tasks from you (or your boss) are you willing to sacrifice or postpone for your urgent task?" 80% of the time that's enough. If not, you walk them over to their boss and ask them the same question. Then, you can go back to your desk and work and let them hash it out or hash it out with your boss to convert this "ad-hoc" request into a "agreed to, planned request."

bitwize 9y ago

You're not really doing Agile until you're meticulously tracking each hour spent. If this sort of thing helps, so be it. But those hours have to get into JIRA somehow.

sillyquiet 9y ago
Are you being sarcastic? I ask because Agile methodology, when done correctly as a bi-directional contract between team and stakeholders, does not have to be like that at all.
- bitwize 9y ago
  At any organization whose business model has evolved beyond "burn through investors' money, ask investors for more money", management NEEDS to have meaningful answers to these questions: * What remains to be done? * How much will it cost? * How long will it take? * Is the team on track or falling behind? Forget contracts. Answers to these questions are non-negotiable for the team. Because the PM or engineering manager will be held accountable for those answers by the executives. The best way to provide those answers is to adopt a data-driven approach. You have stories in the backlog. At the start of each sprint, the developer(s) to whom the stories are assigned break the story down into tasks and assign an estimate IN HOURS to each task. As the tasks are completed throughout the sprint, each developer logs how many hours they spent on that task, preferably daily. This amplifies the benefits of Agile because the manager doesn't have to guess, they can look at the burndown chart and see -- are the developers meeting their estimates? If not, by how much are they missing? Are they taking on an appropriate amount of work each sprint? Should they do less? More? Who is doing well and who is struggling? Then, decisions can be made with respect to who should do how much work on what, with rapid turnaround time. "If it can't be measured, it can't be managed." This is fundamental to management, and has been a maxim in software management even during the Waterfall days. What Agile gets you is shortened feedback cycles and more rapid turnaround.
  - ryanbrunner 9y ago
    Your system makes two assumptions that have been thoroughly, repeatedly proven wrong: - It's possible to know what tasks are required to complete a project at the outset of a project. - It's possible to estimate how long those tasks will take to complete. Any team I've ever seen who claims to do well with both of the above points either had massive sandbagging problems, sometimes openly acknowledged by everyone, and often failed to deliver the best solution they could due to the rigidity of their project plan and the political consequences of straying from it. Furthermore, "if it can't be measured, it can't be managed" is true to a degree, but over-reliance on metrics can result in tunnel vision towards those metrics, resulting in accumulation of technical debt, quality issues, less team cohesion and a host of other problems as your teams myopically focus on hitting their numbers above all else.

matte_black 9y ago

If you could set up this system with a series of internet connected scales for each category, you can take the weight of the bricks from different work areas around the company and know in real time what people are doing while simultaneously recording the information in physical lego form.

karlmdavis 9y ago
You forgot the <sarcasm/> tags, I think (I hope).
- matte_black 9y ago
  Not really. You could skip legos all together and have 3D printers that print out layers of work over time as well, no need to measure weight then as you track it through an API.

WhiteOwlLion 9y ago

dork

gd2 9y ago

I like the physical simplicity of one hour equals a colored block. I've got minor quibbles so will modify it, but good idea.

codemac 9y ago

Reminds me of the Printable CEO stuff by Dave Seah: https://davidseah.com/2005/11/the-printable-ceo-series/ https://davidseah.com/2005/11/the-printable-ceo-series/ Can't recommend this stuff enough, and it's buffet style - take what you like.

rb808 9y ago

BTW Lego sells individual bricks which I'm finding is much better than all those kits. https://shop.lego.com/en-US/Pick-a-Brick https://shop.lego.com/en-US/Pick-a-Brick You can search for pieces eg BRICK 2x4, which are 21c each. Also ebay has loads of used lego pieces which are super cheap.

andrepd 9y ago
You can try bricklink too: www.bricklink.com

detritus 9y ago

In a similar vein, but with a bit of complexity in the background... http://specialprojects.studio/project/bit-planner/ http://specialprojects.studio/project/bit-planner/ "Bit Planner is a physical and digital time planner made out of lego bricks that magically synchronises with any cloud based calendar to help you better organise your projects and get more out of every day."