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Weekly cycle |
In Evo planning we work in weekly cycles. In the figure below, cycle 118 means the cycle starting in week 18 of 2001. Note that a cycle doesn't have to start on Monday: in the example the cycle starts on Thursday and ends on Wednesday. The activities described here are also combined in a "cycle activities" table.
The morning of the last day of a cycle, the Project Leader (PL) visits every team member individually:
About noon, the PL meets with the appropriate stakeholders, who now have their one hour timeslot where the requirements can be altered and reprioritised. Because we are aware of the requirements paradox, we know that requirements will change. Paradoxically, we don't want them to change, however, if they will change anyway, we have to evoke the changes as soon as possible. Thus we avoid unncessary work as much as possible. This is part of the rule: Highest risks first. Requirements change is a known risk which must be managed.
As soon as the requirements are stable again, the PL prepares the tasks for the next cycle for every team member. Then, the PL visits every team member again and asks whether the team member agrees on the tasks, agrees on the hours estimations and gets a commitment (promise) that the team member will deliver the committed tasks done, completely done. If the team member hesitates about the commitment, the PL asks what the team member can commit on. The team member will never be pressed to do more that he agrees on. Otherwise, forget about the commitment, forget about the result. The PL may suggest to do more or to do less, however, the team member decides. This is a major principle.
The next day, at the weekly team meeting, where all team members should be present, the committed tasks are formally assigned. The synergy of the meeting may cause some discussion, advice between members, even rescheduling of tasks. At the end of the meeting every member knows what to do and can start on the new tasks. Team meetings take usually not more than 15 to 20 minutes. How is that compared with your current meetings?
In team meetings I often see that people are asked how they succeeded in the previous cycle. Then we have to hear all the poor excuses why things were not completely done. People start discussing topics as they pop up, not knowing whether other issues could be more important when unfortunately the time of the meeting has run out. This is a bad use of time. Never do this any more! If we decide that tasks are done, really done, this means that they are finished: there is nothing to talk about any more. Advice on finished tasks is too late. So we only talk about the new tasks. Now any advice or comment can help us with the work still to do. If, during the visits of the PL the day before the meeting, generic problems pop up, the PL can discuss these in the team meeting, in a coaching manner: how can we learn to avoid typical problems.
A typical poor excuse at the last day of a cycle is: "I need to contact Janet for this task. I phoned today and she is not in, so I could not finish this task. Sorry." Human psychology tends to postpone tasks in favor of easier tasks. If at the beginning of the week you know that you need Janet to help you, then contact her the first day and make an appointment. The risk of Janet not being available is much less if there is a choice of 5 days in stead of the one last day. So, the rules for prioritising also apply to individual task scheduling: Highest risks first, Synchronise, Deliver! The excuse is unacceptable.