Working part time in an Agile organisation
I work at Technogise, a software development organisation which crafts enterprise software solutions for global clients.
I am expected to handle multiple responsibilities on projects including delivery leadership, end-to-end quality analysis, business analysis while working with Agile teams distributed across different countries.
And I work part time…
Working part time is a conscious decision I have taken because I am determined to invest more time with my family, especially my three growing kids.
At the same time, I am determined not to let part-time impact my delivery capabilities or my commitments to my team and clients in any way.
So what does it take to achieve this balance? Here are my thoughts:
Belief — The very first thing we need is a firm belief that we CAN achieve this balance.
I decided to work part-time because I had confidence in my abilities to give my best to both worlds. Any compromise towards my commitments, be it personal or professional, is unacceptable to me… and I believe I can honour both.
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Family support — My family realises and appreciates the fact that with a part-time arrangement, I have limited time to invest in my work everyday. Therefore, they make sure they don’t distract me from my work (especially when I work from home). This helps me gain maximum productivity while I work.
Goes without saying, this balance can not be achieved without the support of family.
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Organisation’s support — In general, software organisations prefer having full-time employees rather than part-time employees.
And if the organisation works on multiple greenfield projects with distributed Agile teams, then that preference for full-time employees is even stronger…
Why? Because Agile projects rely on maximum collaboration between all team members for their success. And the assumption is that a part-time teammate will only have limited collaboration time, which will in turn be detrimental to the productivity of the project.
However, Technogise looked at things with an open mind. Instead of looking at the number of hours I would work everyday, they were interested in the contribution that I could make during those hours.
Technogise trusts that I can deliver value in the limited time that I work everyday. And I value their trust… :-)
If you have your organisation’s trust and backing, it will give you the confidence you need to successfully achieve that balance.
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Time management — I think the crux of working part-time successfully is time management.
It goes without saying that each individual manages time in their own way, depending on their own personal & professional worlds.
For me, this is how I manage my time:
- Starting the day early — What’s the best way to maximise time at work and home? Avoiding traffic… :-)
I leave for the office early to avoid wasting too much time in commute. - Planning — I plan my day, everyday. I line out my project responsibilities on for the day and prioritise them in an ordered checklist. I identify tasks which can be done individually (without the need of other team members) and reserve them for the times when I’m working alone / from home. The remaining tasks are reserved for the overlap time with my team and stakeholders in office.
- Managing dependencies — I try to make sure that when I leave for the day every afternoon, there are minimum dependencies on me which could block my team members. Similarly, when I leave my home every morning, I ensure that there are no dependencies on me on the personal front. It takes practice, but can be done… :-)
- Clear and assertive communication — We CANNOT do justice to work if we don’t establish clear and assertive communication between ourselves, our team and stakeholders. And this becomes even more important in a part-time engagement. Be it on client calls, or while pairing, I ensure that my team knows exactly what I plan to do for the day, and inform them clearly if there are changes in that plan. Before leaving for the day, I identify with the team if there are any blockers on me. This helps me plan well for the next day as well.
- Analysis before commitment — Just like estimations, I analyse my own delivery capabilities (taking into account all factors) before committing to tasks and timelines. Of course as an analyst, the mindset of doing thorough analysis helps me in this regard.
- Working from home effectively — As per my part-time engagement with Technogise, I work from home everyday for 2 hours post lunch. I believe that working from home requires more effort than working in office. Isolating and immersing yourself in your work, while you are at home alongside your family, is a challenging task. This is where family support (which I’ve discussed above) plays a huge role. Working from home, I ensure that I’m online and available 100% to work with my team & clients.
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Mindset of isolating work and family — I am not entirely convinced with the expression; “work-life balance” .
This is because work is very much part of my life. I don’t consider work to be a separate entity than life.
However, it is important for me to isolate the time I spend with my family from the time I invest in my work.
And how do I achieve that?
Well… for an Agile project to be successful, the first and foremost thing a team needs to adopt is the Agile mindset. Practices & rituals come later on.
Similarly, I’ve realised that unless I adopt a MINDSET which considers work time as only work time and family time as only family time, I will not be able to separate the two.
I believe that if you take your work to home, or home to work, you will not do full justice to either. You have to be strict about not letting work and family times permeate into each other unless critical.
Another discipline that I have imposed on myself is that I avoid work during the time I spend with my family unless it is absolutely critical to the project.
Quite often at Technogise, I come across very interesting problems, which I’m tempted to solve. But rather than taking them home, I park them for the next day.
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Financial impact — Part time work usually means lesser salary than full time work. And working at a lesser pay (after you’ve had the experience of working at higher pay) takes some getting used to.
But I see that there is larger reward of spending more quality time with my kids, while also being able to solve interesting problems with a team of smart engineers.
So it is worth it… :-)
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Interested in working with us? Ping mayank@technogise.com
