This is not nonsense, and not a joke. The article is really about buffers. And it's not about the clipboard. It's about buffers that help you perform better.
CBT
I don't know who first came up with the idea of using buffers in organizing work, but he directly used this word and described it as a principle and a case - Goldratt in the Theory of Constraints.
Even in the first book ("Purpose"), which is written in the genre of a business novel (ie, it hudlit) the heroes, having learned the TOC and the influence of buffers, come to the conclusion that they "did not do anything like that" - they just worked in accordance with common sense. More precisely, they stopped working at random and turned on common sense.
The idea of using a constraint and a buffer protecting it, when understood and used in practice, no longer seems to be anything other than common sense.
In fact, we all use buffers all the time. But we do it unconsciously. What's interesting is that in our personal life we use buffers more often than in work. Hopefully after reading this article you will try to rebuild your activity knowing more about buffers.
To begin with, I will briefly talk about three types of buffers that Goldratt himself proposed.
Buffer in production
This is generally a classic. Imagine that you have a production - machines that sequentially process a part until it becomes a finished product. One of the machines in the chain is the limitation - the bottleneck, the link in the chain with the lowest productivity. The performance of the entire line is determined by the performance of this constraint.
In fact, the line performance is usually lower than the limitation can imagine. Because the limitation is not protected, and does not operate at its maximum power, for one simple reason - the limitation is controlled in the same way as all other machines. And he has the same problems - for example, downtime due to the fault of the previous stages of the chain.
The solution is proposed as simple as firewood - to create a buffer before the limitation. Rebuild the line so that the constraint always has something to do and does not stand idle.
This buffer will have a fun way to measure, but it's important to understand. Because there are two of them - quantity and time. On the one hand, it can be one hundred blanks. On the other hand, one hundred workpieces is four hours of work on the limiting machine.
Time is a more universal characteristic, because it is understandable without performance knowledge. You can simply, without any frills and with complete common sense, say: the restriction is protected for four hours. Or - he has a time buffer of four hours.
Whatever happens before the limit, there is four hours to fix - and during this time the line performance will not degrade.
Buffer in supply
Roughly the same, only even simpler. In general, buffers in supply were Goldratt's favorite theme in his own practice, he implemented them in retail. He said that there is a minimum of effort and a maximum of results. And his company took a percentage of the increase in revenue after the implementation of TOC.
So, the buffer in the supply is to keep in the warehouse so many units of goods that it will last until the next delivery. It is logical to the contrary.
And you feel that two units of measurement are included in the formulation of the buffer? Both the number of units and the time until the next delivery. If you want to decrease the buffer, increase the delivery frequency. Well, bring just enough to replenish your buffer.
In this case, the buffer stupidly protects against a shortage - the absence of goods at the moment when it is needed - no matter who, the plant's own workshop or the next beer buyer.
Buffer in projects
With projects, Goldratt has a simple goal of meeting deadlines without compromising quality or increasing cost. Just like in a promotional brochure.
What to protect in the project? Without thinking twice, Goldratt suggests defending the critical path - the chain of steps or tasks that determines the deadline for a project. If you studied at the university for a long time, then remember - we were all forced to calculate this critical path.
Goldratt expanded the concept of the critical path a bit by calling it (and along with the book) the critical chain. I will not go into details, if you want - you will, but the chain differs from the path by dynamic rebuilding, i.e. the key sequence of stages may change during the course of a project.
Where to stick the buffer here? The heroes of the book asked about this question - they seemed to already know TOC, but did not understand how to apply it in projects. Then they guessed - the buffer already sits in all estimates of the execution time of stages and tasks. Each programmer, analyst, manager, evaluating their stages, put a buffer there.
If memory serves, Goldratt argued that everyone, as one, laid a buffer of 90% percent size. But no one wanted to admit this, because the assessments of project implementation do not lend themselves to regulation, and are made "by experience", which is usually difficult for everyone.
The actual implementation of each stage of the project takes about 10% of the time that is allocated for it. This is the time when something is being done directly, and not planned or analyzed. And then it’s simple - no one really knows how to meet deadlines and plan their work. Having a margin of time that is ten times greater than labor costs, everyone is still late, because they start at the wrong time (in the book it is called "student syndrome").
Well Goldratt says good guys. Let us take all your buffers from the estimates, summarize and place them at the end of the project. No local buffers, only one common one - for the entire project. More precisely, on its critical chain.
Of course, they didn't give him all the buffers, but they cut their grades 2-3 times. At the same time, the project time was reduced by 2-3 times, because not the entire amount went to the general buffer, but its reasonable and explainable part - the authorities did not agree to a very large amount of time.
All the guys were told - don't be guided by deadlines, just do it. As soon as possible, but without increasing cost or reducing quality. In fact, he said to focus not on the planned completion date, but on the start date. Well, everything began to spill over.
In the critical chain, a buffer protects the project's due date.
What does the buffer protect against?
To summarize, then - from the need to urgently intervene and do something wise. Goldratt called this “management attention,” and drew a graph that said if the time buffer was too short or too long, it would take a lot of attention.
And what is the attention of the management? It depends on the situation, but you may well be the guide. For example, if you buy groceries to prepare only one lunch, you will have to run to the store three times a day. And if you buy it for a year in advance, then you will suffer with storage and inventory of expiration dates. In both cases, a simple process like groceries will take a lot more of your time than you'd like.
In the workplace, manual task management is a typical example. This is when there is a boss who only does all day long, which gives orders, controls their execution, requests information, etc. If all his tasks are urgent and important, with a deadline of 1 hour, then he will literally stand above his soul. If terms are measured in months or years, then all the time will be spent on refreshing the memory of subordinates - who will remember all this long-playing nonsense?
Let's look at some more mundane examples of buffers.
Weekly Purchase Buffer
A simple example from life is purchases a week in advance. Probably most of us use such a buffer. Again, notice - there is both quantity and time. We buy exactly as much food as we need for a week.
If we buy less, we will often have to run to the store - we will spend time and money, because in a store near the house, prices are slightly higher. If we buy more, we'll throw away half, or we'll have to buy a second refrigerator.
The weekly purchase buffer protects us from hemorrhoids. You can live all week without worrying about nutrition, and attention to this process is required for an understandable period of time on one of the days off.
Buffer - technical support
It may seem wild to you, but technical support, and even divided into several lines, does not exist everywhere. Russia is full of companies where unfortunate programmers are engaged in everything - development, testing, and architecture, and at the same time they hang on the phone for half a day, or even run around with a back seat in the soap.
I used to work in factories and while the IT staff was small, I did not really feel the problem of lack of a buffer. Well, Skype calls and messages get in the way - I just didn't pick up the phone and didn't answer. Whoever needs it badly will come running. And he'll hear that I'm busy.
And when the staff grew, he continued to act by inertia, not dividing the role in the team. As a result, everyone, without exception, had a ragged, incomprehensible, unpredictable load. It just doped that the buffer is needed - a separate person who only deals with support. And that's it, the hemorrhoids blew away like a wind. And at the same time - and a requirement for my attention, to constantly resolve urgent tasks, mixed with normal development.
The technical support person has become a buffer protecting the development of IT systems.
Buffer - speak less
For me, this is directly relevant, tk. I talk too much. Some ideas are constantly being born in my head, and I, out of stupidity, previously expressed them aloud or in writing at once. The management liked the ideas, and they, as befits the bosses, immediately demanded that they be included in some plan and implemented. To myself, of course.
And I said the idea and forgot. An hour later, I changed my mind. After two, I came up with another idea, the opposite of the first. Well, or the developing first. In general, I do not want to implement anything.
But the authorities insist, because I was "writing bazaar". As a result of such mistakes, I several times got on the implementation of projects that I myself considered senseless. Well, I worked out a simple rule - to be silent.
Silence became a buffer against myself. If the problem is not mine, but someone else's, or some general problem, then you can express anything you want. If we are talking about the work of my or my department, then we can and should only talk about what has already been done, or is in the process of implementation.
If you want to change something, change it. But you don't need to tell anyone about it until you have done it. This is about a buffer. Protects directly strongly.
Communication buffer
On the one hand, electronic means of communication, it seems, are designed to speed up the process. I picked up the phone, dialed the number, and you can immediately talk to a person on the other side of the Earth. Or wrote a message and got an answer right away.
But now the trend is different - walking faster. Electronic communications, especially mail, have become such a real buffer, protecting from too annoying lovers to receive an answer this minute (hello managers). You don't have to pick up the phone, don't answer the letter, only nasty messengers draw their two check marks.
I love these buffers. They allow not to waste my "management attention", which is so small. And whoever needs it badly will still find how to contact.
Bureaucratic buffer
This is a straight classic from the classics. Especially when it comes to officials. All work regulations written by bureaucrats are buffers that soften blows and, in fact, protect against them.
Every decent regulation has an entrance, some actions responsible for their implementation and, most importantly, a deadline. The same time at which the buffer is measured. Thanks to this buffer, it is possible and necessary not to jump up to every appeal, but to respond to the appeal with dignity, calmly, in all form. If the answer is not satisfactory, there will be a second buffer for the second answer. And so on, ad infinitum.
Bureaucratic buffers are created by systems for self-defense. From whom? From us or from you, depending on which side you are from.
Values buffer
One of the varieties of bureaucracy, usually hidden under the sauce of values, moral principles, corporate culture and love for customers. Most often found in dumb managers.
It usually manifests itself in situations that go beyond the typical, familiar, worked out. In such cases, alas, one must think to look for an unusual solution, sometimes creative, to work with conflicts. This is more difficult than invoicing or reconciling service records.
Therefore, a person does not do what the situation requires, but he must somehow explain his position. Phrases from the buffer, which are in most more or less large companies, come to the rescue.
For example, it hides behind a fashionable customer focus, when a client sat on his neck and wants services for a million, paying a thousand. A manager usually gets a percentage of sales, and in terms of effort-to-result ratio, a thousand is much better than a million. Moreover, the interest will be paid only after the signing of the act. Surely, in this situation, the manager will mention a tit in his hands.
Top managers also love the buffer of values. For example, about the loyalty of the company. Especially when you need to work on weekends, or reduce your salary, because there is a crisis, but what else to save on, if not on the salaries of employees.
True, during the crisis, the buffer is not mentioned, which the same top managers forgot to create - for example, for paying salaries, a portfolio of projects or, in extreme cases, several loyal customers.
But that's a slightly different story - buffers that we didn't think about. Although, recent months have clearly shown who was thinking about protection, and who about convenient values.
The value buffer protects those who are not ready to act according to the situation. As an unknown source in Detmer's book said, "Average managers care about 'has it done this before' and 'what people think.' It is important for the good that the problem is solved. "
Now, having understood the principle, I want to read your options for buffers. If they are about programmers or their managers, it will be straightforward in general. Thanks in advance.