Why time-boxing Works

Time is an important variable in virtually every project. In a highly competitive world every organization is trying to get more done, in less time. Time-boxing is a simple technique that can be applied to a number of situations in order to improve efficiency and deliver results more quickly.? Time-boxing is the process by which a fixed time limit is set for different activities like meetings, development cycles or tasks.? Agile and scrum methodologies distinguish themselves by utilizing time-boxing in various ways throughout the development process.??

One of the obvious reasons to include time boxing in a particular activity is to reduce the wasted time spent in meetings or on tasks. One of the consistent complaints that I have heard throughout my career is that too often meetings are often unproductive or without focus. The management literature backs this up with varied estimates but it’s not unlikely that about a ? or the time we spend in meetings is not used to effectively address the particular reason for the meeting.? Regardless of what number you choose to believe, it’s hard to deny that we waste plenty of time at work and that using that time more effectively could add greatly to both personal and organizational satisfaction. Minimizing wasted time spent in unproductive meetings is very important and noble goal but timeboxing is a powerful technique that can be applied to many situations in which groups need to come together and generate ideas and decisions quickly.?

The effects of setting time limits has been the subject of a great deal of research across a wide variety of disciplines from psychology to information system design.? Scrum and agile methodologies draw on much of this research and incorporate it into its processes and practices.

Scrum prescribes a rigid set of fixed time limits for these Scrum ceremonies:

But even beyond these fixed rules it’s a good idea to include time boxing in any situation ( Requirements gathering sessions, brainstorming) where you need maximize the effectiveness of a particular activity.??

People are making decisions virtually every moment of every day, some important, some trivial.? When we make decisions we are weighing choices, choices on how and where to seek out information and what importance we give that information in our decision making process.? This is a largely cognitive process which can often be complicated, full of imperfect information and obvious and non-obvious factors. ? The inclusion of a time-box or a time limiting characteristic can radically affect how people process and act on information, it has a huge impact on this cognitive decision making process.?

From our own experience we know what happens when we are faced with time-pressures and deadlines.? We often act in a way that is more energetic, and make decisions more quickly. Unfortunately, we also feel anxious and sense of discomfort.? This anxiousness lies in our understanding that we have less resources ( both mental and physical) to complete a given task. It’s a fine a line, we want to create enough time pressure to provide focus and engagement but we don’t want to add so much pressure that people end up being less effective than they could be.? Many scholars have described time pressure as a U shaped curve in which time pressure increases effectiveness to a point, and then effectiveness starts to decrease. For most organizations time boxing is often not used at all, and the addition of time-boxing can be an effective tool to increasing efficiency within your processes or within your organization as a whole.

Time-boxing works because the effect of time has been shown to have profound effect on how we find and process information in a given situation.

Individuals facing time-pressure exhibit 3 important characteristics:

Acceleration:? The brain actually speeds up the way it processes information. Our cognitive abilities speed up and we increase the speed at which we make decisions.??

Filtration: We deliberately ignore certain less important information and only concentrate on those factors that we deem to be the most important at arriving at the “right” decision.? We still end up acquiring all the information but we spend less time evaluating those pieces that we deem to be less relevant.?

Strategy Shift:? We begin to change how we acquire and process information. Under time constraints people actually process information in different and oftern creative ways to reach a decision more quickly.

Time also has a tremendous effect on motivation Time boxing is simple concept with some very powerful underlying research behind simply the process by which tasks or activities are prescribed a fixed set of time.? This time box is rigid, when the time box runs out the meeting or activity is done.? Agile and scrum frameworks utilize time boxing in a number??

As a project manager in can be a difficult question to deal with, it’s often hard to predict given the imperfect information and variable Time boxing is the process by which one sets a time limit on a task or activity.? Agile and scrum processes utilize time boxing in a few different ways and for a few different reasons. ? It is seemingly the one factor that people see as malleable.? I recall one of my bosses years ago asking me how long I thought it would take to complete a certain task, after I responded he told me to go ahead, but do it in half the time. A conversation like the one I had will hopefully not happen in your agile and scrum project.??