The Deadly Disease of the Focus Factor
There is this small germ that keeps thriving year after year. Untreated it will bring the organizations it infects to an unheroic death. To check your organizational health, answer these two questions:
- Do you estimate work in “ideal” hours?
- Do you follow up on your estimates, comparing it to how many “real” hours work it actually took to get something done?
If so, you may be in big trouble. You are exhibiting symptoms of the lethal disease of the “focus factor”. This is how the illness progresses:
Speed of development will keep dropping together with quality. Predictability will suffer. Unexpected last moment problems and delays in projects are common. Morale will deteriorate. People will do as they are told, but little more. The best people will quit. If anything gets released it is meager, boring and not meeting customer expectations. As changes in the business environment accelerate, the organization will be having trouble keeping up. Competitors will take away the market and eventually the end is unavoidable.
This article written by Professional Scrum Trainer Henrik Berglund will show you how to further self-diagnose and treat this disease.