What is Timeboxing?

Consider the following scenario: Joanne is a team manager tasked with creating the career development plans for her three subordinates. Joanne has been pushed by her organization's Human Resources department to fully complete this by July 20th, three months from now. This is, says HR, her deadline.

Three months pass, and Joanne has one of three possibilities:

• The career paths have been created in full with no further work needed and can be used immediately.

• The career paths have not been created to a point at which they can be used at all, including no work having taken place on their creation.

• The career paths have been created enough to be used, but further work can be done to them to improve them.

The first scenario is preferable but unlikely. Achieving perfection on the first attempt would be ideal; however, expecting it is unrealistic due to the many variables involved. In fact, if something appears perfect at first glance, it may indicate that some issues have yet to be uncovered.

The second scenario is likely but not preferable. Imposing a deadline to fully complete a task often leads to numerous challenges, rendering this outcome more likely. In this situation, we are left with only incomplete work. We can neither implement the result of the tasks nor can we expect to observe any empirical feedback from its use.

The third scenario is a combination of possible and preferable. Recognizing that a deadline for perfection is unlikely, the optimal situation is to produce something good enough to implement and then refine and improve as more is learned.

We can maximize the likelihood of the third scenario by implementing a timebox. Timebox is a term coined by James Martin in his book, Rapid Application Development, which recognizes that complex work is difficult—if not impossible—to perfect within a deadline. The timebox provides us a period of time in which a person or team works to get enough of a task done by a deadline so that it can be implemented as is while accepting there may be future work to be done.

The timebox does not replace the deadline; it is simply a conceptual approach to getting work done, complementing a deadline. Martin describes it as, "There is a deadline that is immovable, but the functionality of the system may slip. The system must work, carrying out its basic functions, but the fancier refinements may have to be postponed for a later release."

In a complex environment, there is always more that could be done to perfect a product, service, or feature, and as conditions evolve, any product can quickly become outdated. Therefore, it’s more effective to focus on completing something functional rather than allowing scope to continually expand. Timeboxing supports focus as one approaches a deadline.

A key aspect of a successful timebox must be reiterated. It must result in something that intends to be implemented. That is, a timebox must produce something usable and valuable.

Timeboxes are helpful because they help shift a mindset away from perfection and to a much leaner one, just enough to return value. People, teams, and organizations can learn sooner from the observations made from the artifact delivered at the end of a timebox.