Wasting Time as an Agile Developer? 5 Ways to Fix Time-Bandits at Work

View Points | January 27, 2011 by | 5 Comments

As developers, we are, at the end of the day, the critical path between completion and non-completion of a project. I mean, let’s face it. If we didn’t do our jobs, all the project managers out there would be out of a job! (I kid, I kid!)

Russ Sherk, a developer at Klocwork, tells us about the 5 biggest ways to waste time as a developer and what to do. Not only does Russ give us the ways to fix the issue, we’d like to add on a couple of pointers on how Agile can help with time-wasting for developers too.

Top 5 Time Wasters for Agile Developers and Fixes

Issue #1 – Code without a plan.

  • The Fix – Have one. Use story cards.
  • Agile Fix – Break those stories into tasks. Check with your Product Owner for guidance and get busy.

Issue #2 – Switch tasks constantly.

  • The Fix – Get to a completion point before switching.
  • Agile Fix – Understand what the definition of “done” is. Read more on that here.

Issue #3 – Wanting to fix everything in the code on an issue.

  • The Fix – Fix what you can to the best of your ability.
  • Agile Fix – Have a healthy balance between what you can and cannot fix. If a feature get’s to the “done.” Complete it. Refactor issues later or have a refactoring sprint.

Issue #4 - Build infrequently.

  • The Fix – Frequent build cycles.
  • Agile Fix – Have your work-flow and team use a consistant build process, whether it is individual or group. Build up a cadence to your builds and communicate and identify issues, changes, or problems quickly.

Issue #5 - Optimize early and over-engineer.

  • The Fix – Plan the bare minimum to get your feature working.
  • Agile Fix – Same as Russ’. Work the feature till “done” and refactor later.

Great stuff Russ. Thanks for the tips!

[HT: Klocwork.com]

5 Responses to “Wasting Time as an Agile Developer? 5 Ways to Fix Time-Bandits at Work”

  1. Gerald
    November 21, 2011 at 4:48 am #

    Thanks for the tips. Definitely useful.

    Reply

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