Collective Wisdom from the Experts 41
much of this information is “swapped out,” and it requires considerable mental
energy to regain it. This has a huge impact on productivity, and studies find
that employees are not creating new ideas to the extent they used to because
of infomania.
In addition, different types of distractions have varying degrees of impact on
the developer’s train of thought. One might be able to get up, use the restroom,
get a cup of coffee and a sandwich, or even move to a whiteboard, while keep-
ing all of the program data still actively circulating in the brain. In fact, the
movement might help him/her see a new avenue to solve a problem.
Planned meetings are especially problematic for programmers, as they might
waste time when they know there is an upcoming item on their schedule. They
think, “why get started only to be interrupted in 30 minutes?” And great ideas
that come during meetings may be lost, or stale, by the time the developer gets
back to his computer to capture them.
Developers’ productivity can also degrade by over 50% for each additional
simultaneous project. Developers working on three or more projects often
spend more time attending meetings to explain why they are not making any
progress than getting any actual work done. When developers must contribute
to multiple projects, make sure that they are guaranteed at least two full days
on each project before switching to another. This will minimize the amount of
time they must spend reintroducing themselves to each project.