Improving project timeliness by 18% in an IT agency
We introduced a system of daily statuses and task prioritization. As a result, the team stopped chasing deadlines, and work quality increased.
The Code and Design agency was struggling with chronic delays in delivering modules to their clients. Instead of implementing expensive tools, we focused on operational discipline in a team of 9 programmers.
The challenge
At the end of June 2024, our process audit showed that as many as 44% of projects were ending with at least a 3-day delay. The team was overwhelmed, and programmers spent an average of 2.2 hours a day in meetings that added no value.
The chaos resulted mainly from a lack of clear priorities. Every client wanted to be treated as a priority, which resulted in programmers losing focus and frequently interrupting work on code to put out fires. The cost of overtime started to drastically lower the margin of every deployment.
Our approach
At Profit Doctrine, we started by implementing 15-minute briefings in the morning. We eliminated long status updates in favor of a clear task board where priorities were set by real contractual deadlines, not emotional pressure.
Our method was based on introducing so-called 'deep work blocks'. From 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM, programmers worked without messengers and phones. We started planning all corrections and deployments only in time windows in the afternoon, which allowed avoiding interruptions to creative work.
The solution
We built a systematic information flow where every programmer knew what they had to deliver by the end of the day. We limited the number of open tasks per person to a maximum of 3 simultaneously. We also introduced a simple time tracking sheet that showed us exactly where the hours were leaking.
We gave up extensive project management software, which only took up time, in favor of a readable table with priorities available to every member of the team. This allowed the team to regain control over the calendar and stop working in a perpetual crisis mode.
Results
Thanks to introducing discipline, the agency significantly shortened project delivery time without increasing headcount.
Timeline
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July 2024Programmer work time audit
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August 2024Implementation of uninterrupted work blocks
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September 2024First full month with the new system
"I was skeptical about the changes because we feared a drop in pace. It turned out that after 4 weeks, the team started working easier, and deadlines stopped being a problem."