Are Handoffs Good or Bad?
Joshua Kerievsky ????
Helping organizations deliver better software sooner | Dad | CEO | Entrepreneur | Author | International Speaker | Software Designer | Tennis Player
The other day a friend suggested that I handoff my video editing to someone, so they could take care of it for me. I replied that I prefer to do it myself, since I've learned how to quickly edit and produce videos and don't want to wait before I can release them. I realized then that I don't actually have a problem with handoffs, I have a problem with slow handoffs.
Modern Agile has a principle called "Deliver Value Continuously." It means to work in such a way that you deliver value (whatever you deem that to be and however you measure it) as quickly and consistently as possible. I challenge myself to live that principle every day. Handoffs can help or hurt our ability to deliver value continuously. It comes down to how slow or fast they are.
When I wrote Size Teams For Few To No Handoffs, I was giving advice based on the typical slow handoffs I see between teams: one team requests help from another team and then the waiting game begins. Waiting is waste and great teams look for and remove waste as quickly as possible.
You can remove handoff waste by making a slow handoff fast. Or you can remove it by expanding your team to include the people to whom you were handing off work.
When handoffs are consistently fast, we might even ask whether the person or team you're handing work to is actually already part of your team?
Handoffs themselves aren't intrinsically bad. They just need to be fast. Actively eliminate any and all handoffs that are consistently slow.
Systems Worker (ORSC, LCP/CLA, Co-Active)
7 年Moving handoff software development managers to hands-on structure and organisation managers. The emergent self-organizing teams remove the need of a Project Manager that directs the team (one brain is much less intelligence than the sum of the brains of the team directly engaged with the product). A good manager can see (or be alerted) this hindering process between two teams where they rely on a handoff. He will fix this situation by removing this person and supporting him to find his new role. Then turning handoff to hands-on is the way for me to make progress in Enterprise Agility. Educating both the teams and their managers to actively doing their job without waiting others to do it. This is a partnership as both needs support along this journey.
Business Growth Specialist | Business Community Leader| Business Connector
7 年I enjoyed reading this article. Thanks, Joshua.
Engineering Manager @ SAP
7 年Another side of handoff, well said.
Ideal state: No handoffs (zero waste) - In reality you would like to optimize the structures and processes to get to the ideal state where you can, and make them short/fast where you can't get to the ideal state. Waste is never good.
Senior IT Leader
7 年Hand-offs are trade-offs. Depends on how you value lead time, money, e.g. and whether each hand-off is worthwhile against those metrics you value. Classic consultant view of "it depends", I admit.