by industrial designer Dieter Rams.
If there is one Agile principle that doesn’t get the attention it deserves, it’s this one: “Maximize the amount of work not done.”
In fact, it’s normal—expected, even—to do just the opposite: get work done, and the more work, the better.
Agile values work done too, especially working software. But Agile values “work not done” just as much. Without it, things quickly get messy, and what may look like “agility” to some is anything but.
“Work not done” is a good thing, if only for the following reasons.
Simplicity
If you don’t distill the important (work done) from the unimportant (work not done), you end up with complex solutions. And complex solutions are not only harder to use, they are also harder to implement and support.
Execution
With more work not done, you have less work to do, so you can focus on execution.
Stop starting, start finishing.”
And execution matters.
Vision without execution is hallucination.”
—Thomas Edison
Agility
Work not done means you think creatively and respond to change.
Indeed, Agile teams don’t manage work as a to-do list that keeps growing.
Change the focus from ‘do all this’ to ‘do this next.’ ”
—Ron Jeffries, Developers Should Abandon Agile
Instead of a to-do list, Agile teams use a “backlog” where they continually rearrange work items and swap new work items for old ones. This way, you can stick to a timeline and deliver the important, while the less important ends up as . . . work not done.
Using this approach, you change the mindset from “just do it” to “do the right thing.”
Change the mindset from “just do it” to “do the right thing.”
Here’s another way to look at it: when you say “yes” to doing one thing, you say “no” to doing other things, including things you haven’t thought of yet. So you might as well focus on one thing at a time and give yourself the flexibility to commit to the next thing when you are ready for it.
Excellence
Less, but better.”
—Dieter Rams
In the end, it all comes down to this: in your pursuit of excellence, “work not done” is one of the most powerful principles you can use. So stop feeling guilty about work not done—it was likely less important to begin with—and start using it to your advantage.
