Focused Attention

This is Part 4

Part 1     Part 2     Part 3    Part 4     Part 5 
In the context of practicing a musical instrument or a sport, the student can Practice, Practice, Practice all they want, but if they are mindlessly practicing they will not achieve the same level of proficiency as when they are focused towards achieving specific goals.

A few years ago I worked with a client where the IT group was very consistent in their delivery. Unfortunately, they were consistently late on every major initiative. I attended a meeting two weeks prior to the scheduled launch of a newly developed system where the team was discussing basic requirements questions. On another initiative the testing plan was first being discussed as the team was preparing for final data conversion and system launch. I watched other project teams fall victim to delays because of partially allocated resources. And the list goes on.


This client reminded me that some time ago I was introduced to the four F's. Haven't heard of the four F's? Well I was introduced to them as they relate to what companies must be in order to succeed. Unfortunately I don't remember the original  attribution, but the four F's are Focused, Fast, Flexible and Friendly. In a more recent  book - Leadership Recharged - I noticed a fifth F - Fit. I've also been told there are the 6 F's and the 7 F's. For now I'm sticking with five which are: focused, fast, flexible, friendly and fit, all of which seem very familiar, in fact, very lean and agile. I like all five, but for now I want to discuss the first one - Focused.

When working with teams, I often ask the team members to describe an experience where they were part of a successful team. I don't care what type of team, just any team, any context. I then ask them to share with the group the characteristics of the team. I want them to tell me what made the team successful. One of the interesting aspects of this exercise is, regardless of the context or team type, successful teams share common characteristics. And in my experience Focused is almost always listed as one of the team's attributes. I hear it in different ways, like:

• We shared a common vision
• Everyone on the team worked together towards a common goal
• Our team understood where we were headed
• When I joined the team, they made sure I understood the big picture and how my part fit in
• The requirements were clear
• We knew the quality standards for our product

You get the idea. All of these responses illustrate that successful teams have established clarity around the goals and approaches for the project team. When we as individuals maintain our attention on a clearly defined end state or goal we have a much greater success rate, in fact it's key to the success of any team. On our development teams we can create focus at the product level all the way down to the task level. Some ways you might establish clear goals for a development project include:

• Create product & release goals
• For the current iteration, select specific iteration goals
• For an individual user story, clearly describe the story and write acceptance criteria using "Test it with" or "Try it with" and/or and executable requirements (e.g., using FIT/Fitnesse)
• Create clear definitions of done, at multiple levels (e.g., task, story, code, etc.)
• Dedicate team members to allow them to focus on one project at a time

Again I think you get the idea. If you work within an organization like my previous client, you've experienced the lack of focus with the associated impact to the team, project, product, and business.

Insist that your project establish clarity around the product and project objectives. Chances are, if you have questions about the objectives other team members do as well.