Definition:
The corporate form of multitasking is pursuing too many concurrent projects. When an organisation takes on too many projects people become shared across multiple projects, which leads to individual multitasking. Individuals feel compelled to multitask because the organisations in which we work attempt to multitask as well.
The detrimental effect of multitasking then causes those projects to take more time, which leads to more multitasking near the end of the project when we need to start a new project. Mary and Tom Poppendieck urge organisations to limit work to capacity. An organisation that has more projects running concurrently that can be adequately staffed is attempting to work beyond its capacity. Don’t start a new project until it can be fully staffed, Include ramp-up and wind-down time in enterprise plan, gaining agreement on simple rules can help lead to the right organisational behaviour such as “No one can be assigned to more than two projects. Go slow, but go. You have to believe that doing fewer concurrent projects will lead to more projects being completed.
Further Reading:
Book: SUCCEEDING WITH AGILE Software Development Using Scrum by Mike Cohn
