First Things First

~300 word | ~1.5 min read
How do you ensure something important happens? You put it first. First in your day. First in your Budget. First.

Putting first things first is more than making a list. It is follow-thru. Picking what goes first. And then actually doing it. Otherwise it is just words on paper. What makes it Prioritization is action.

The real question, though, is what you put first. Consider your typical agile sprint. What goes first? What goes right after planning? Some developers jump right into coding. Some take a moment to rough out a design on the whiteboard. Some start with Test Cases. Have you ever met someone who starts with refactoring or dependency updates?

Leftover Maintenance, like dependency updates, will eventually become unplanned work. And there are some target ratios for the kinds of work we should have in the system. But how do we get to that balance? You put first things first. The first thing you do is the most likely to actually happen. Everything else, is subject to circumstances. Production fires, anyone?

If we invest in our development systems first, we’ll create a virtuous cycle. A clean workspace is easier to work in, like a lower cycle time. Maintained tools break less often, like less unplanned work. Less interruption, and easier means more productive.
More productive engineers create more time for work, each time we do work. But it all depends on adopting a disciplined, intentional habit around our priorities. First things first.

So for your next sprint, before you jump into the code, make a decision. Is Code the first thing? Test Cases? Or should it something else? Pick your ‘first thing’ based on the results you want to see. Put your ‘first thing’ first. And then actually do it.

P.S. I first encountered timeless lessons, like this one, in Peter Drucker’s the Effective Executive. And I just released a commentary on this seminal book on management. Check it out for insights on Effectiveness!