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DA3. Agile Methodology and Productivity Measurement

Statement

Frederic Taylor applied the scientific method to management. In many cases, this meant measuring a process to determine its optimal possible output.

  • From your own work experience, discuss a time you have seen measurements used to manage a process.
  • Examples might include allowing a certain amount of time for a phone call or a project deadline.
  • Do you believe the results were optimal, based on the measurement used?

Answer

Fredric Taylor was famous for his time studies; he would start a stopwatch and measure the exact time for a worker to complete a task using the scientific method. With more data, he could determine the optimal way to perform some manual tasks (like shoveling coal) and increase productivity. The critics of this method argue that it can not be applied to jobs that require creativity or critical thinking as it may demotivate the workers and reduce the quality of the work (Carpenter, Bauer, & Erdogan, 2010).

The field of software engineering (which is my field) has some management methodologies that are used to effectively manage the work and optimize the output. These methods include Waterfall, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and others (Westland, 2017). The various methodologies were created due to the wide range of industries that software deals with and the wide types of projects and teams. Agile is the most popular now but it is flexible to the point that each team can tweak it to fit their needs (Teamwork, 2024).

In our team, we use Agile methodology, and we have tried multiple ways to measure and control productivity. The number of tasks completed was used as a measure but it was not fair as people would pick smaller tasks to have a bigger number of completed tasks. Later we used story points which is a multiplier that adds weight to the tasks according to their complexity so that completing a complex task would roughly give equal points to completing a few simple tasks. Later we introduced T-shirt sizing which is a simpler way of categorizing tasks into a few sizes according to their complexity and the expected time to complete.

The results were never optimal as switching contexts takes time, that is to move from one task to another, do you add this time to the previous or the next task? Also, the time needed to gather information and define all requirements for a task as opposed to doing the actual work; so if the actual work is small but the gathering process is complex, do you add that to the task or have a separate task for gathering information? Also, sizing or setting expectations is subjective as plus or minus one in each task estimation can lead to a big difference in the team’s expected output.

In conclusion, measuring productivity as a function of time spent on a task is not optimal as it gives people the incentive to accumulate as many Done tasks as possible which may leave complex tasks undesired and reduce the overall quality of the work. The best way to measure productivity is to consider all the context, that is, the complexity of the task, the quality of the requirements, the expected added value to the business, and the personality of the worker. Finally, no way fits all, each team should adopt a methodology and utilize the learn/improve cycle to optimize their output.

Word count: 490.

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