There's been a rash of post around the notion that Multi-Tasking is bad on projects. Nice restating the obvious. Now what can be done about this?
The first step is the acknowledge there is a problem, and search for a solution. There are actually very few solutions. The first solution is to staff the project with the right people at the right time so multi-tasking is no longer an issue.
This sounds naive, but it's not. If you don't have the right labor spreads right for the work to be done, you're in trouble before you start. But there are some activities that can be done to get the project off on the right foot:
- Resource allocate across work packages to minimize the multitasking assignments. Ruthlessly drive to this goal. Without a clean set of assignments, the project is an unaddressed risk. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT let MSFT Project resource level your project. Once you do that, you're turned over the role of "manager" to a machine - an all round bad idea.
- Serialize work so multitasking does not take place. Serialization also creates on environment where 100% work is complete before new work starts along that work stream.
- This serialization has another benefit - the down stream work is always consuming 100% complete raw materials
- Use a resource allocation view in your project management tool to smooth the assignment of resources.
When reading the multitasking is bad, ask "and what is your suggestion for correcting it." No suggestion? - move on, the speaker hasn't had to solve the problem no a non-trivial project.
