Figure 3 deliberately shows an iteration running mid-week to mid-week. My experience, and the experience of others assisting teams, is that running iterations mid-week to mid-week is more effective than running them Monday to Friday. Why this should be so is difficult to pin down, but there are several reasons that I believe contribute:
- The ‘Friday afternoon effect’. If an iteration resets on a Monday, then anyone completing a piece of work on Friday will not be particularly motivated to start another piece of work. In many environments it is common to finish early on Friday, or take a long lunch. If the iteration has several more days to run, there is less incentive to ‘slack off’ on a Friday afternoon.
- Monday refresh. I believe there is research showing that people are more effective at the start of a new week. I hasten to add I have not read this research myself, which is a little lax of me. Anecdotally many people, if asked, say their most productive day is Tuesday. Assuming there is truth in these tales, it is a good reason to avoid meetings on Monday and Tuesday.
- Public holidays. In the UK and many other countries many public holidays occur on Mondays. This means that there is more chance of an iteration meeting being disrupted if it is scheduled on a Monday.
- Personal holidays. Again in the UK and many other countries individuals are more likely to take a Friday or Monday off as a long weekend. Consequently planning meetings on these days are more likely to be missing a team member.
- Meeting rooms. In a surprising number of organisations booking a meeting room can be difficult, either because there is a shortage of rooms or the booking process is complex. Therefore it is worth striving to book rooms further in advance on a regular basis, and minimise changes. Indeed, it can be impossible to book a meeting room in some companies for the day after a public holiday, because all the meeting conveners are trying to move their meetings back one day.
- Regular schedule. Keeping to a very regular schedule has many benefits, one of which is that meeting rooms can be booked weeks, months, even years in advance. If you have an electronic booking system, set the meeting to repeat with no end date.
- Time zones. Although it is best to collocate teams, many find this is not an option. A team in Holland has programmers in Houston; a team in London has analysts in New York, a team in Pennsylvania has members in Bangalore and so on. Thus holding any whole team meeting means someone may need to work late or arrive early. Asking team members to work late on a Friday, or arrive early on a Monday, encroaches on family time and space.
There are probably more reasons that could be added to this list. None is in itself conclusive, and you might choose to argue with some of the points. As I said, experience – not theory – shows mid-week to mid-week is best. Perhaps the best advice is to experiment for yourself.
Source: Xanpan – Team Centric Agile Software, Allan Kelly, http://leanpub.com/xanpan
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