Programmer Under Pressure — 5 Ways to Manage Multiple Tasks
You’re in the middle of building your algorithm for a complex business problem when suddenly another client raises an issue about their software bogging down. Then a few minutes later, your team leader is asking you to explain what you did with the project you delivered yesterday while new email messages pop up every 5 minutes.
Sounds familiar? Well, you’re not an isolated case. While in agile principles, team leads should protect their programmers in these distractive scenarios. But one organization should be able to devise a way to manage this in an automated manner. In our team, we teach them how to manage tasks:
1. Be Systematic. — Don’t work and solve tasks as it comes. Try to set your own definition of severities, complexities and priorities. My favorite priority are tasks with the highest value and least effort.
2. Let Your Managers Manage You — instead of managing yourself, try to seek help from your managers to help you in which one to prioritize. Help them manage you at the same time by providing estimates and values for each issue or ticket assigned.
3. Practice Acknowledgement — When certain issues arises, try to acknowledge it first. In the tech industry, SLAs are measured thru response time and acknowledging an issue as it comes will greatly help customers and stakeholders manage expectations and so they won’t be bombarding you with follow ups that will add up to your pressure.
4. Don’t Force Yourself — When things are beginning to get stuck or if you couldn’t seem to solve an issue, then have a break. Breathe air, nourish self, eat fruits, take a power nap, read, these things will greatly increase your creativity juices.
5. Swallow Your Ego — Don’t be afraid to say you couldn’t do it. As a manager, its always better to get honest feedback from members as early as possible. This will avoid delays and so that your manager can assist you in sourcing for help from other team members and/or internet research.
Dennis M. Hilario is the Founder & Managing Partner of Hilsoft, Inc. a software development R&D Lab in the Philippines.
