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I've tried working in a cubical, an individual office with a door, and open plan offices. By far my favourite is open plan. I like being able to turn to my co-w

I've tried working in a cubical, an individual office with a door, and open plan offices. By far my favourite is open plan. I like being able to turn to my co-workers and ask quick questions, I like the atmosphere, and if things are too noisy or distracting I just put headphones on and get in the zone.

absconditus 13y ago
I wonder whether your coworkers enjoy being interrupted frequently.
- kamaal 13y ago
  Having the luxury to be interrupted frequently and yet not get frustrated is likely a indication that you are doing a lot of small tasks that don't require long hour focus. If you are doing something important that needs you to be focused on on particular a thing for long hours,without any interruption, frequent interruptions are disastrous. There are also more ways to look at it. If you are doing too many small time tasks that don't demand any serious focus. Its likely you have taken the wrong direction with regards to your career.
  - mh- 13y ago
    If you are doing too many small time tasks that don't demand any serious focus. Its likely you have taken the wrong direction with regards to your career. Great way of putting that. Can I borrow this? :)
    - kamaal 13y ago
      Sure. :)
- monkeynotes 13y ago
  When working on a project that needs to be extremely reactive and accomodate functionality at short notice often requires quick, on target communication. If my coworkers aren't able to communicate quickly, and efficiently with myself and the other team members then the project will lose agility. Often we will have tasks that require not being disturbed and in the stand up meetings we flag this.
  - snuxoll 13y ago
    Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the POINT of "agile" (seeing as you just used the word) software development to both increase communication AND eliminate distractions by keeping a single line of communication open between the product owner and the development team so things can be filtered out and brought up at appropriate times? If you need immediate communication, there are other far less distracting methods, such as IM or email, that one can safely ignore until they have managed to lessen their memory load until they've reached a safe point to stop. If you're constantly interrupting your fellow developer while they're in the middle of a high-memory task you are deliberately DESTROYING any "agility" of your project by wasting their time rebuilding their mental state before you interrupted them.
    - monkeynotes 13y ago
      As defined by Wikipedia agile favours amongst other things; * responding to change over following a plan * individuals and interactions over processes and tools * working software over comprehensive documentation * face-to-face conversation * co-location and pair programming And also... "Agile methods emphasize face-to-face communication over written documents when the team is all in the same location. Most agile teams work in a single open office (called a bullpen), which facilitates such communication. Team size is typically small (5-9 people) to simplify team communication and team collaboration." I could go on. Almost everything in agile is about flexibility and that's exactly what we need in our team and exactly what being able to sit close together without cube walls enables. Agile certainly is not about single lines of communication, it's almos the complete oposite of that. Agile doesn't have 'appropriate times' since unknowns must be accommodated as and when. Being agile is about iteration, firing and then aiming, talking to each other, collaborating, and getting it done. And as I said before, if individuals need uninterrupted time to get their work done this of course is accommodated. We're not school children, we know how to behave. IM and email are all ok communication tools, but they are inefficient compared to a quick conversation - especially if you need to look at a visual front end bug on your colleague's screen in order to understand what the problem is.
  - mindcrime 13y ago
    I'm sorry, but that is a weak excuse. It is not necessary to have everybody sitting in one big open room, in an environment where anybody can interrupt anybody (or everybody) at the drop of a hat, to be agile. I would also argue that if your project is being that reactive that it should be considered an anti-pattern, and that you should examine ways to make things less chaotic (erm, I mean, "agile").
6d0debc071 13y ago
I find it impossible to work with music on when I need to concentrate. Any sort of noise on a persistent basis just about kills productivity for me. Worked in an open plan office before, wouldn't again, not for any sort of reward. Went home every night feeling like I'd been run over by a bus. Go home go to sleep. Not my idea of a good time. There were times when I'd catch myself starring off into space. Working from home has been much better for me. If someone interrupts, then they have to put a bit of effort in, so they're less likely to do it just because they're too lazy to find an answer themselves or something like that. And the absence of noise and the constant pressure of being available to people all the time has dramatically increased my quality of life.
mindcrime 13y ago
Conversely open-plan is my least favourite. It appears to be a system designed to maximize interrupts, distractions and context switches, and to minimize productivity, morale and concentration. As far as I'm concerned, "open plan" is the Evil incarnate. I would never willingly subject a group of knowledge workers to that environment. When we grow Fogbeam to the point that we have employees and actual office space, my intention is to ensure that everybody has a private office, with a door that closes. Or, at least, that everybody is offered such a thing. If some people want to work in a different configuration, I wouldn't want to force them into an office when they don't want it. My dream configuration has always been "a private office for every individual" and then complemented by several large open area with plenty of couches, chairs, tables, and whiteboards on wheels (and good wi-fi, of course) so that teams, small groups, and individuals can create ad-hoc, temporary configurations that suit them when they need to be co-located, but yet everybody has an office of their own they can retreat to when they need intense focus and privacy.
- MikeTLive 13y ago
  Your dream is my award winning design. It does work spectacularly.

absconditus 13y ago

I wonder whether your coworkers enjoy being interrupted frequently.

kamaal 13y ago
Having the luxury to be interrupted frequently and yet not get frustrated is likely a indication that you are doing a lot of small tasks that don't require long hour focus. If you are doing something important that needs you to be focused on on particular a thing for long hours,without any interruption, frequent interruptions are disastrous. There are also more ways to look at it. If you are doing too many small time tasks that don't demand any serious focus. Its likely you have taken the wrong direction with regards to your career.
- mh- 13y ago
  If you are doing too many small time tasks that don't demand any serious focus. Its likely you have taken the wrong direction with regards to your career. Great way of putting that. Can I borrow this? :)
  - kamaal 13y ago
    Sure. :)
monkeynotes 13y ago
When working on a project that needs to be extremely reactive and accomodate functionality at short notice often requires quick, on target communication. If my coworkers aren't able to communicate quickly, and efficiently with myself and the other team members then the project will lose agility. Often we will have tasks that require not being disturbed and in the stand up meetings we flag this.
- snuxoll 13y ago
  Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't the POINT of "agile" (seeing as you just used the word) software development to both increase communication AND eliminate distractions by keeping a single line of communication open between the product owner and the development team so things can be filtered out and brought up at appropriate times? If you need immediate communication, there are other far less distracting methods, such as IM or email, that one can safely ignore until they have managed to lessen their memory load until they've reached a safe point to stop. If you're constantly interrupting your fellow developer while they're in the middle of a high-memory task you are deliberately DESTROYING any "agility" of your project by wasting their time rebuilding their mental state before you interrupted them.
  - monkeynotes 13y ago
    As defined by Wikipedia agile favours amongst other things; * responding to change over following a plan * individuals and interactions over processes and tools * working software over comprehensive documentation * face-to-face conversation * co-location and pair programming And also... "Agile methods emphasize face-to-face communication over written documents when the team is all in the same location. Most agile teams work in a single open office (called a bullpen), which facilitates such communication. Team size is typically small (5-9 people) to simplify team communication and team collaboration." I could go on. Almost everything in agile is about flexibility and that's exactly what we need in our team and exactly what being able to sit close together without cube walls enables. Agile certainly is not about single lines of communication, it's almos the complete oposite of that. Agile doesn't have 'appropriate times' since unknowns must be accommodated as and when. Being agile is about iteration, firing and then aiming, talking to each other, collaborating, and getting it done. And as I said before, if individuals need uninterrupted time to get their work done this of course is accommodated. We're not school children, we know how to behave. IM and email are all ok communication tools, but they are inefficient compared to a quick conversation - especially if you need to look at a visual front end bug on your colleague's screen in order to understand what the problem is.
- mindcrime 13y ago
  I'm sorry, but that is a weak excuse. It is not necessary to have everybody sitting in one big open room, in an environment where anybody can interrupt anybody (or everybody) at the drop of a hat, to be agile. I would also argue that if your project is being that reactive that it should be considered an anti-pattern, and that you should examine ways to make things less chaotic (erm, I mean, "agile").

6d0debc071 13y ago

I find it impossible to work with music on when I need to concentrate. Any sort of noise on a persistent basis just about kills productivity for me. Worked in an open plan office before, wouldn't again, not for any sort of reward. Went home every night feeling like I'd been run over by a bus. Go home go to sleep. Not my idea of a good time. There were times when I'd catch myself starring off into space. Working from home has been much better for me. If someone interrupts, then they have to put a bit of effort in, so they're less likely to do it just because they're too lazy to find an answer themselves or something like that. And the absence of noise and the constant pressure of being available to people all the time has dramatically increased my quality of life.

mindcrime 13y ago

Conversely open-plan is my least favourite. It appears to be a system designed to maximize interrupts, distractions and context switches, and to minimize productivity, morale and concentration. As far as I'm concerned, "open plan" is the Evil incarnate. I would never willingly subject a group of knowledge workers to that environment. When we grow Fogbeam to the point that we have employees and actual office space, my intention is to ensure that everybody has a private office, with a door that closes. Or, at least, that everybody is offered such a thing. If some people want to work in a different configuration, I wouldn't want to force them into an office when they don't want it. My dream configuration has always been "a private office for every individual" and then complemented by several large open area with plenty of couches, chairs, tables, and whiteboards on wheels (and good wi-fi, of course) so that teams, small groups, and individuals can create ad-hoc, temporary configurations that suit them when they need to be co-located, but yet everybody has an office of their own they can retreat to when they need intense focus and privacy.

MikeTLive 13y ago
Your dream is my award winning design. It does work spectacularly.