Timeboxing

November 21, 2008

One of the characteristics of all agile methods of project management is timeboxing — the practice of limiting activities to a particular amount of time. As I’ve mentioned, my team uses Scrum and its processes employ timeboxing to great effect. Of course, the basic idea is that timeboxing prevents teams from getting too hung up on requirements gathering (“analysis paralysis”) and forces them to get to work. If you’ve never worked in an agile environment, then this might sound a little chaotic. I can imagine a traditional project manager wondering how a team is supposed to proceed without first creating a detailed plan. Scrum — or any other agile method, for that matter — doesn’t endorse moving forward without a plan. Frankly, that would be impossible. But it does tell developers not to worry about identifying every possible requirement for a project before getting started. In Scrum, you develop incrementally, so the requirements scope can be defined as development progresses. Again, the value of timeboxing is to simply force a development team to commit to a starting point — usually, just some basic functionality. As they continue to develop, the rest of the requirements will begin to surface.

How does Scrum use timeboxing? On a macro level, the Scrum work cycle is made up of sprints, which are repeatable increments of time. For my team, sprints last two weeks. When each work cadence is capped at a particular time (such as two weeks), the team (in conjunction with the Product Owner) is forced to make decisions about what it can accomplish in that time. Of course, that means that some functionality will have to be developed in future sprints; not everything can be done at once. But again, the idea is to get the team moving toward sprint goals as quickly as possible.

Probably the best example of timeboxing in Scrum is the daily standup meeting, in which team members come together for a quick check-in. Each team member has one minute to report on what they accomplished since the last meeting, what they’ll be focusing on until the next one, and what impediments stand in their way. Even if a team member hasn’t delivered a full report, at the one-minute mark, he or she must stop speaking to allow the next team member to deliver an update. To enforce the timebox, many teams use a timer or a talking stick. But, again, the goal is to help the team maximize its time by curtailing superfluous speculation and spurring action.

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Written by admin · Filed Under Agile Project Management, Scrum 

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