4 ms·

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

by 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."

by esseti 9y ago

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."