Play of the month: How to make a more flexible work schedule a reality

[Kristen Roth]

Flexible work has been a hot topic for a while now, and it’s not going to cool down anytime soon. Detractors may say it can’t be done, but the truth is, with the right planning and prioritization, you can deliver all your work on a schedule that you’re happy about.

Our team prioritization Play will help get your team focused on the right things (in the right order!) and empower everyone to say no to low priority requests. By the end, you’ll have agreed on the mission-critical stuff that should be tackled first, and have a plan for working outward from there. Now go ahead and take that Friday off.

                                     

How are you when it comes to prioritization? Are you a ruthless prioritizer? Or do you often feel overwhelmed and unsure about what to work on next?

[Bill Sheboy]

Thanks @Kristen Roth 

When discussing priority and sequencing, I find it helps to practice methods which are:

• simple
• low cost
• repeatable
• team-owned
• explainable to stakeholders

For an example from Kanban, try classes of service with work in progress limits.

Kind regards,
Bill

[Alexander Bondarev]

Nice point, thanks!

[Heydi Menéndez]

I liked this !

[meghna_singh]

Always struggling with prioritisation
Thanks for sharing!✨

[Kristen Roth]

You and me both, @meghna_singh! Thanks for reading!

[Walter Buggenhout]

I am wondering if the play would also work at a higher level; I mean not to prioritise project tasks, but prioritise projects against one another.

[Bill Sheboy]

Yes, and...perhaps matching the tool for the correct domain/scale/scope.  What process-effort, accuracy, and precision levels are needed for an ordering request?

For example:

• goal level: comps (comparable goals based on history)
• problem level: impact to customers represented by personas versus relative cost
• initiative/epic level: some form of WSJF (as it was originally defined by Reinertsen and not how SAFe altered it  :^)
• team level: classes of service

[Kristen Roth]

@Walter Buggenhout we happen to have another prioritization Play for exactly that!  

https://www.atlassian.com/team-playbook/plays/prioritization-matrix

[Alexander Bondarev]

@Kristen Roth , thanks for sharing! 

The play looks simple and interesting. I will remember it!

[Kristen Roth]

Let us know if you give it a go, @Alexander Bondarev !

[Tina Behers]

Great write up!  Well done!

[Sedera Randria]

Probably interesting to also consider the Cost of Delay (cf.Allthethings Prioritization Matrix ) and the Eisenhower decision matrix :-)

[Hakeem Olasupo]

I always struggle with prioritizing things.

[Pramodh M]

Hi @Kristen Roth 

Great Content on how to factors that come into play when we to improve as a team.

Thanks for sharing the content.

I have just enrolled in Atlassian Team Playbook facilitation and getting to know about the Team Playbook.

Hope to see more discussions in the future on Team playbook from my side as well.

Thanks,
Pramodh

[Kristen Roth]

Thanks for reading, @Pramodh M !

[Gaurav]

@Kristen Roth this definitely would help in the upcoming prioritization discussions :)

[Ram Kumar Aravindakshan _Adaptavist_]

It always takes me a bit of time to determine the priority of the tickets.

[James Richards]

This is a good topic, we should all try and think about the issue raised.

[Craig Nodwell]

Thanks for sharing that

[Omar Mohamed Fathi]

thanks for sharing the topic

[Dan Breyen]

I refer back to Steven Covey.  First Things First.  That book helped me to prioritize projects based on size & urgency.

[Josh Shepherd]

Now if we can find a solution to back-to-back meetings that would be great.. ;) 

[Shawn Doyle - ReleaseTEAM]

I guess I'm a ruthless prioritizer.  Most things get sent to the extremes, it's either hotter than hell or cold as ice.

[Sara Beyer]

In the same way that JSM projects automatically rank service requests/incidents based on the SLAs, so should other work be prioritized based on due dates. I use Plans to keep all the work that my team is doing prioritized by end date. Priorities change? I can change the date and update the rank of all issues so my team always knows what to work on first if they have any doubts. We also discuss any of those changes at our weekly meetings. I've found that this helps direct all our efforts in the same direction, even when that direction changes.