Introduction
Imagine you’re deep in focus solving a complex issue in Project A, and then a Slack notification reminds you of an urgent request from Project B. You return to your previous task, but it takes 15–20 minutes just to get back into the flow. This isn’t just frustrating—it has a measurable cost.
In Agile teams, where delivery speed and collaboration are crucial, context switching is a silent but persistent killer of productivity.
What is context switching, really?
Context switching happens when someone has to quickly shift attention from one task or project to another. Research from Stanford and MIT shows that such interruptions reduce cognitive ability and may cause productivity to drop by up to 40%.
In a Scrum environment, where teams work in sprints with clearly defined goals, introducing multiple projects disrupts that focus.
What happens when a Scrum team works on multiple projects?
- Flow is disrupted – Each project has a different context, stakeholders, and priorities. Getting back into the workflow is costly.
- Planning becomes chaotic – Sprint planning loses its purpose if the backlog is constantly reshuffled due to demands from other projects.
- Quality suffers – Less time for thorough testing and code reviews.
- The team feels stretched – People physically and mentally experience burnout from constantly firefighting.
But isn’t multitasking good?
On the surface it seems efficient. More projects = more work done? Nope.
Multitasking can be helpful for very routine tasks. But in software development, where creative problem-solving is key, multitasking becomes counterproductive.
How to limit work in progress (WIP)?
- Clear sprint focus – One project per team per sprint, wherever possible.
- Educate stakeholders – Help them understand that “faster” actually means “slower” when the team is overloaded.
- WIP limits in tools – Use tools like Jira to set WIP limits on columns (e.g., max 3 tasks in “In Progress”).
- Portfolio-level prioritization – If you have multiple products, define which takes priority in which period.
- Dedicated teams – Where feasible, form fixed teams per product instead of everyone working on everything.
Conclusion: Less is more
If your team is jumping from task to task, it may seem like you’re covering everything. But in reality, the result is often half-finished work, more bugs, and exhausted people.
Focus is your most valuable resource.
Instead of asking for more hours in the day, let’s use the hours we have more wisely.
