An office with a view...

Here are some of the questions that went through my mind before I moved into my own office:

How will I know what’s going on with the Team? How will I get hold of the ideas and suggestions that spring to life from thin air while the Team’s working? How can I continue to work and still be influenced by the Team when I’m not there? Will I become more efficient working from an office? Will anybody come to visit? Will I now become that sad looking guy that people say “hi” to without ever getting an answer? Will I gradually lose my motivation, start making other plans and ending up as a consultant again? Will my company now raise my salary to the same level as the guy who previously had this office? And the most important question… Will the Team lose my respect now that I’ve decided to become one of “them” (the suits)?

As you can probably tell this was not an easy decision for me. I have done this in the name of science and with an open mind willing to be convinced of something I don’t believe in. This is an experiment and here is a glimpse of what I’ve experienced these last two weeks.

On my first day I wrote a note saying: “I’m so bored, I’m so f#¤&%g bored. No one to talk to, no one to bother… How am I going to work in these conditions?” And in huge letters at the bottom it said: “Be strong!” In the upper left corner there was a very personal note that I’m not going to tell you.

I used most of the day to get comfortable in my new surroundings. Since I’m an architect I can’t live without a whiteboard, so I found one and smashed it on the wall. I then removed some drawings left behind by the previous owner’s children (nice, but I’m not quite there yet). When I was about ready to start my day, it was over. I went home and complained to my girlfriend.

I used the next few days to send email to people letting them know I was sitting in this office. I hadn’t seen many people since I moved, so I though this email would help. It didn’t. I just had to admit to myself that I’ll be stuck here for myself for a while. I then started to look at the current and upcoming Sprints (ref. Scrum) and started to work. And the next thing I remember is that the lights went out. The time was 6.30 pm and I was the only guy left. Wow! Where did the time go? I went home.

By now I’ve started to notice that the days are getting shorter. I don’t know how it happened, but this office is in another time zone. I’m still looking for the knob on the wall to slow things down, but it’s not to be found. I’ve screamed out loud “Beam me up, Scotty” a couple of times, but nothing has happened so far. Even the hourly sessions of fussball has been reduced to once a day (at least I have one social activity). During a day I have more visits to the zone, than I usually have in a week. 

So am I saying that having your own office is nothing but good? Have I found Mecca? Have I just been playing around for the last 10 years? Yes, I have.  It’s been fun, but now it’s over. Time to grow up and become a responsible human being! Or is there something more to this?

I’m an extrovert person (according to this guy) and I like being around other people. If I’m alone for too long I get restless. This also means that I like talking to people, being part of and contribute to conversations. This makes a group of developers an ideal setting for me. So my problem is that I don’t WANT my own office, but I think I need one. Based on my experience described above I think you understand why.

What about the rest of the Team? Should they have their own offices to? First of all I think people who like being more by them self and are not as extrovert, have more to gain of being part of a team than I have. Why? I think they very often have better ability to concentrate on what they’re doing, getting into the zone and still be able to respond whenever their neighbor ask them questions or what not. And even more important, they are able to get back into the zone again very fast. So what do they gain from being part of the Team? One guy told me that sitting with the Team is just more fun! It’s motivating and you learn quite a bit just by being there. And if your team is doing Agile stuff, I think it’s mandatory in order to get the team spirit you need to be successful at Agile development.

One last thing about my role in the Team is that I’m not very often working on stuff that the Team is working on. I do a lot of research, specifications, talking to others about ideas and having my own whiteboard discussions. In fact when I think of it I might be a disturbing element for the Team, so they’re probably glad they finally got rid of me.

To conclude this rather long tale, I’m willing to change my mind and admit that for me having an office is a good thing. However, I still think that for a developing Team to have success they need to be grouped together. Not necessarily the whole Team, but at least in smaller groups.