That's not a timebox, that's a deadline!
One of the most recognised trappings of Scrum is the time box.
Scrum is full to the brim with time boxes.
The Sprint is a time box, and so are all the meetings!
Time boxes are everywhere in Scrum.
Time boxing also has something in common with many other agile and scrum practices; it’s not always implemented that well.
When things are not done well, the benefits will fail to materialise.
Thus, if the approach you’re using (say Scrum) is seemingly made out of timeboxes, then getting time boxing right is likely to be important.
How could you get a “time box” wrong?
Easily enough apparently if the available evidence is anything to go by.
Luckily the reason for doing so seems clear.
Step one in “not implementing time boxes properly” is to assume "timebox" is nothing more than "the new agile jargon" for deadline.
If you've ever been a part of a "we need to extend the Sprint" discussion, then:
1. Somebody in that discussion was most definitely confusing the two
2. This blog post is for you, if only to forward to them 😉
Anybody who has ever wanted to extend their Sprint is treating the Sprint as if it was a deadline and not a timebox, and the Sprint is most definitely supposed to be a time box.
What's the difference?
My favourite way to describe the fundamental difference between the two concepts come from Jabe Bloom.
I’ve forgotten the context, and indeed the country, but we were discussing this very same topic a good number of years ago, when he came up with this lovely succinct explanation:
“Deadlines are a put stuff in box, whereas time-boxes are a keep stuff out box”
I've been using that saying ever since.
Awesome soundbite, but what does it mean?
Defining Deadline
Deadlines are a concept that most people are familiar with not just inside project management.
Deadlines are everywhere:
· there is a deadline to lodge your taxes
· fill in the census form
· to vote in an election
· there is even a deadline for catching a plane flight
There are consequences to missing a deadline:
· You're fined if you miss the tax or census deadline
· You lose your chance to affect the outcome of an election if you arrive at the polling booth after it closes
· If you miss the deadline for the departure of a plane, you don't get to fly at that time and might also have to buy another ticket
All of these are examples of what I call Real Deadlines. When the prescribed time has passed the option to avoid the fine, influence the election or catch the plane has completely expired. There is no going back.
How is this a “put stuff in box”?
When you’re working to a deadline, “the stuff you must do” is the highest priority.
Some deadlines do expire completely, such as the deadline to vote. But many deadlines allow you to “slip” the deadline at a cost.
So even thou the focus appears to be on the “Due Date”, the criterion for success is actually “getting the stuff done”; getting it done “by the deadline” is sometimes just “bonus points”.
In many cases, the only true failure comes from “Not Doing the Stuff”
Bottom Line: Deadlines are more about “Doing stuff” than they are about “Being on Time”
Time Boxes on the other hand…
Are quite different.
A timebox is just a predetermined amount of time.
Any amount of time at all. Scale does not matter here.
If you work in two-week Sprints, then that’s a two-week timebox.
Every day is a time box
As is every hour, every month, and every year.
That’s the heart of it, a time boxes expires regardless of what anybody did, or did not do inside of it.
I’m sure a lot of people had plans for the 2020 & 2021 “time boxes”, I know I did.
The fact that we didn’t do those things, and instead did other things does not in any way change the fact that 2020 expired with complete and total indifference, in the exact same way that 2021 is about to do. No amount of champagne and blatant defiance of safe social distancing guidelines is going to change that.
A time box is not based on anything, apart from a decision of “how long should this time box be and what shall we call it?”
In the culture I live in, the months we use are based on the phases of the moon. The year is based on one full rotation of the earth. Our entire notion of time as a species was derived from what we experienced in the natural world. Which we then later abstracted & adjusted for a variety of reasons. You can read about one of the drivers in the book “Longitude”
Keeping Stuff Out
OK, so I’ve explained that timeboxes are not for putting stuff in, but it doesn’t naturally follow that they’re actually for “keeping stuff out” does it?
Strictly speaking they’re not for that, but rather they can be used to do that.
The same is true for deadlines, they’re not for putting stuff in either.
I’m simply focussing on what each technique is best at doing.
Since:
Deadlines are made from “lists of stuff”
Timeboxes are “independent of all stuff”
It seems logical that timeboxes, being independent of “stuff” are therefore highly useful to “keep stuff out”.
It’s a Teflon™️ kind of time, stuff can’t “stick” to it!
The Pomodoro Technique
I think the easiest way to understand timeboxing as a way of “keeping stuff out” is to use The Pomodoro®️[i] Technique as an example.
The Pomodoro®️ Technique was developed by Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s.
There is quite a lot to it now, check out Francesco’s website for more details, my point however, is best made by describing a far more basic implementation.
I don’t use it every day, but I do use it when I have a lot of stuff to do, where the priorities are not clear, and neither is the amount of time that any of it might take to do. You know, uncertainty.
Rather getting stuck in analysis paralysis, if you ever find yourself in a situation like that then:
1. Write a list of all the things you could be doing
2. Decide to focus on just one of them, don’t bother thinking about it too long, you’ll see why in a moment
3. Set a timer for 25 minutes. Then do that thing, and only that thing for the entire 25 minutes.
4. When the timer goes off, stop. Take a 5-minute break. Set a timer for that too so you remember to come back from your break.
5. When your break is over decide whether you want to:
a. Continue to work on the same thing you were previously working on (assuming that it's not finished) OR;
b. Switch to an entirely new task
6. Whatever you decide, set another 25 minute timer and commit to focussing on just that thing for the next 25 minutes.
7. Repeat
It's a tremendously productive way to work.
It’s not about “getting the thing done” inside a single 25-minute pomodoro. That happens occasionally, but most of the time it doesn’t. Regardless that’s not the point.
The point of the Pomodoro®️ time-box is to do just that one thing, and nothing else. For 25 minutes.
If you’ve never tried it, give it a go today, you’ll be amazed.
Pro Tip – silence all your notifications.
Inside outside, upside down
The last point I’d like to make is the different way in which we use language when we speak of deadlines vs timeboxes.
We work “to a deadline” but “inside of a time box”
So maybe Jabe was only half right; time boxes are most definitely “keep stuff out boxes”, but I’m not sure deadlines are even boxes! The clue is in the name, they’re not boxes, they’re lines!
That means they only have a single dimension to the time box’s three.
So which dimension is that then?
It’s the dimension of “dead”, not a box, but a limit, past which consequences are guaranteed to occur if you cross it!
Why would you want to use that to plan? Far too risky for me.
I’d prefer to use a box, a thing you can get in and out of at will and without dire consequences. Just learning.
A box that protects you whilst you’re in it, that helps you focus, helps you get more stuff done, instead of threatening you the closer you move towards it.
If I had a line of death in my future, I’d definitely use a time box or two to protect me on my journey; to keep me focussed on what had to be done to ensure that I never got distracted and then accidentally crossed into the “dead zone” of negative consequences.
But I guess all those deadline loving folks are just not as risk adverse as I am.
[i] “Pomodoro®” is a registered trademarks by Francesco Cirillo. The protection of these marks is entrusted to the Francesco Cirillo’s company Cirillo Consulting GmbH.