I was on a large software team using TSP when the company decided to move us to a new building with an open office environment. They cited gains from "collaboration" as the reason.
I later reviewed our TSP data and found that we had a 32% decrease in productivity after the move, which never recovered. At the time, half of our team members were located in a different state and did not go through a similar move. Those team members did not see any decrease in productivity over that time period, so it can't be blamed on team workload or seasonal fluctuations.
This translates to millions of dollars in lost productivity over just one year, let alone the potential losses of delayed products. Not to mention the absolute misery of attempting to work in such an environment.
It still baffles and frustrates me to no end that managers insist on doing things like this after seeing such conclusive data.
Slashdot Mirror
I was on a large software team using TSP when the company decided to move us to a new building with an open office environment. They cited gains from "collaboration" as the reason.
I later reviewed our TSP data and found that we had a 32% decrease in productivity after the move, which never recovered. At the time, half of our team members were located in a different state and did not go through a similar move. Those team members did not see any decrease in productivity over that time period, so it can't be blamed on team workload or seasonal fluctuations.
This translates to millions of dollars in lost productivity over just one year, let alone the potential losses of delayed products. Not to mention the absolute misery of attempting to work in such an environment.
It still baffles and frustrates me to no end that managers insist on doing things like this after seeing such conclusive data.
Are you sure? Might want to take a look at this.