Context Switching...

A small conversation struck up at the office today, ironically in the middle of the morning, about Context Switching, and the effect on develoepers.

I recalled an old post from Johanna Rothman on this topic and looked it up. It's here (be sure to read the comments too).

It's kind of related to the post I did a few days back about developers taking support calls.

And there are heaps of others having their input:

• As usual, Joel has something sensible to say on this here and here.
• This one sparked a bit of discussion
• And here's a pretty simplistic example that is referenced in some of the above posts.

So what's the right answer - especially in a small company with just 3 developers, 1 and 1/2 support people - you just can't help it. There is lots of work to be done, at the same time.

My current solution, as manager who has to do development work as well, is to delegate the longer term, complex development issues, remain as interruptable as I can to "shield" developers.

A scenario that puts a hole through this though, is when our support staff have to where other hats, and get out on site - leaving us short staffed back at the office, or during update times (once every quarter) when technical support is in demand - my solution - sacrifice one developer for a predefined time...at least we put all our interrutions into one basket.