--- In scrumdevelopment@yahoogroups.com, "Mark Levison" <mlevison@...>
wrote:
>
> One group of teams that I'm coaching is considering moving from
cubicles,
> with developers scattered about the floor to a co-located environment.
> Management understand the productivity benefits and are interested
in the
> change. However there are a group of outstanding questions:
> - Are there side effects?
> - Setting expectations - how long do most teams take to get used to
this?
> - Do you find that there are developers who refuse to make the change?
> - Are there other settling issues that you experienced?
>
> The answers will help us plan a transition so that the developers feel
> comfortable with the change. BTW Clearly the developers will be
involved in
> the decision making process.
>
> Cheers
> Mark
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Blog: http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/
> One Year of Scrum: Lessons Learned
> http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/2007/10/one-year-of-scr.html
> Aperture vs. Lightroom - best comparisons
> http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/2007/02/aperture_vs_lig.html
> Customer Retention Department - Vonage Customer Service Sucks
> http://www.notesfromatooluser.com/2007/06/customer_retent.html
>
We faced the same move (from separate cubicles to open space) - here
are some comments on that move:
- Initially there was very strong resistance from quite a few
engineers - they felt they were giving up their privacy and "comfort
zone". So we let them organize their desks with the open space, and
found they ended up at the periphery, all facing away from each other
(corner positions preferred to side positions). But now they were in
better positions to scoot over to their neighbors, which was a big
improvement. Some team members, however, never felt comfortable in
the open setting, some team leaders in particular (maybe they felt
their position warranted special seating?), so they were permitted to
remain in their cubicles, where they are to this day. Nonetheless, as
pair programming began to creep through the teams, we found the
engineers spending more and more time sitting beside each other, which
made the actual location of their desks fairly irrelevant. My one
strong piece of advice: give the engineers LOTS of time to make this
adjustment - it's a big one for many of them, and impossible for some.