It is popular in the agile community to speak about small batches delivered rapidly. Ignoring for the moment the ability of the business to absorb these deliverables, and when they are not put to use their aging properties, I had an experience today with batch size.
It's a beautiful day here in Colorado (Thanksgiving Weekend), 70 degrees. Time to get started on the Christmas lights. We have 450 feet of split rail fence surrounding the inner yard.
Here's an assessment. I want to have the lights droop between the fence posts, 3 loops per post. The standard rails (at least here) are 10 feet long (except where they are not). 4 attachment points for the lights two in the middle and one on each post.
Here's the approach, the points of attachment need to be marked, the lights stapled to the top rail at those marks, for each spot around the back yard's 450 feet of fence. Tools include a measuring tape, staple gun, lights on a spool, helper (thank you wife) to hold the spool while walking on the inside of the fence, while I walk on the outside of the fence attaching the lights so the neighbors can see them when they drive to our part of the neighborhood.
I started by measuring 3⅓ (1o feet divided by 3) feet from the first post by one of the gates, marking the spot, drooping the lights to the second rail, and stapling the lights to the top rail. After a few posts it was obvious what the individual steps were:
- With the staple gun resting on the fence post (so I don't have to reach down into the tall grass, take the measuring tape and measure 3 ⅓ on the rail, mark the rail,
- Put down the tape on the post top,
- Pick up the Christmas light string,
- Pick up the staple gun and staple the light,
- Put the staple gun back on the ground or the top of the post,
- Measure the next 3⅓ feet down the top rail, and
- Repeat stapling process.
My wife went to the house to get the rest of the light strings. While gone I decided to measure out the spots a few posts down. When she came back, I was ready to attach the lights in the pre-marked stops on the top rail. With her holding the spool, I started attaching the lights to the spots I'd marked for the next three posts - 12 spots.
What dawned on me was the notion of batch size.
- Should I have a small batch size, one attachment at a time with the 4 steps to make each attachment
- Pick up tape measure, and measure 3⅓ feet
- Mark the spot
- Put the tape measure down
- Pick up the lights and the staple gun and attach lights
- Put staple gun back on post
- Move to next step
- This is a 3 step process for each attachment
- Measure and mark
- Attach the light
- Move to next spot
- Or, should I do larger batches of work
- Mark all the spots on the top rail for the entire 450 feet (or at least a large portion of the fence)
- Pick up the staple gun, attach the lights all the way around to the endpoint, moving around the yard, stapling away (until I reach the Blue Spruces where I have to have a different plan).
- This is a two-step process
- Measure all the points on the fence
- Attach all the lights to the fence
- Call it done
So What's All This Talk About Small Batch Sizes?
What size is the best batch size for the maximum throughput, that is the fastest way to get the lights up and get back in the house.
The maximum throughput is to have the maximum individual batch size - Measure everything, attach everything, be done
