The environment in which we often work is frequently designed more for organisational convenience than it is for the people who work in it, and managed by, in my personal opinion, by \u201cfurniture police\u201d who are driven more by space efficiency and cost targets that do not reflect the possible conflict of those targets with the need to help people get the most out of their working days.<\/p>\n
In the buildings that Egg designed for itself, the style was generally open plan for working together, even the Egg Executive area in Derby was as open plan as compliance with regulations would allow, and the London offices were designed rather like a call centre.\u00a0 The designs however recognised the need to get get away from your desk occasionally and so included break-out areas, both loud \u2013 to blow off-steam – and quiet \u2013 to do some thinking.\u00a0 The Dudley Egg IT offices were however not really in the same mould being a rather elderly office block.<\/p>\n
If you look at other exemplars, you can see both common themes but also diverse solutions:<\/p>\n
an INTJ sort of place, where each developer has their own small office, at lunchtime everybody streams out to lunch in the common areas, and then back to quiet corridors after as everybody settles back into their own space<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
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- IDEO<\/em><\/strong> \u2013 have a keen focus on working spaces designed for their creative people, in particular with dedicated project spaces where the individual teams could work together<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Indeed the Egg team were very taken with both IDEO itself and also its working environment which provided some significant inspiration to the thinking on the new Agile environment<\/p>\n
The case for space<\/h2>\n
Early in the process, we engaged in a short review of the external wisdom on the topic of working space, and came up with a number of useful insights:<\/p>\n
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- In \u201cPeopleware\u201d, List and De Marco indicate that there is a 2.6x productivity multiple between bottom and top quartile of development people, and that the key drivers in terms of working space are:\n
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- Dedicated space, at least 78 sq. ft [this about 7 m2<\/sup>, which is nearly twice the minimum total space including furniture dictated by the <\/em>UK Heath and Safety regulations<\/em><\/a>, however the Peopleware material is not clear whether the dedicated space referenced includes furniture or not, just that it is about twice as much as the lower productivity group<\/em>]<\/em><\/li>\n
- Quiet, individual space<\/li>\n
- \u2018Manage\u2019 the phone<\/li>\n
- Avoid interruptions<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- In the SAGE software estimating developed by Dr. Randall Jensen, and the only estimating method at that time to include environmental factors, a similar productivity boost is also indicated for the difference between \u201cModern\u201d and \u201cTraditional\u201d work project types, with the key environmental factors being\n
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- Dedicated project area with dedicated resources<\/li>\n
- No communication barriers<\/li>\n
- Tools for creative work<\/li>\n
- Project control of the workspace<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- An Industrial Society (now The Work Foundation) study on \u201cThe State of the Office<\/a>\u201d noted that whilst people value having a variety of shared and individual space, having control of their space was important<\/li>\n
- In discussion with Egg Development managers a number of needs\/desires were identified:\n
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- Secure environment<\/li>\n
- Quiet area where no meetings take place<\/li>\n
- Quality respected space for me<\/li>\n
- More like a campus like the States<\/li>\n
- Leisure facilities, nice gym<\/li>\n
- Good quality refreshments<\/li>\n
- Free vending machines for Egg employees\u00a0 [This one probably not in the same cultural context of partnership as later developed!]<\/em><\/li>\n
- Creative environment<\/li>\n
- Child care facilities<\/li>\n
- Chance to work from home more often<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
You can read more here\u2026<\/p>\n