Beautiful Teams

Companies Make Their Own Troubles

One of the XP practices is to adopt an open workspace. The practice involves giving the team its own space to work. In the center is a big table. Project information is plastered on the walls. Computers are set up on the table so that it's easy to collaborate.

We did not have an open workspace and we discovered that working in cubes was not great. The monitors were in the corners and that made working together tough. We started talking about taking down some cube walls so that we could have a good space for communication and collaboration.

I asked Johnny about moving some walls. He said, "We can't do that; we have union people who configure all the furniture. We have to go through them." I had envisioned how Peter Gibbons, the frustrated programmer from the movie Office Space, unfastened his wall and it toppled, freeing him from his cube. That was not going to happen. It was time to visit Bud.

I said, "Bud, the cube walls are hurting our ability to communicate. We should take down a few cubes and make a space for the team."

"Save your energy for something else; that one is a non-starter. We have a policy for furniture reconfiguration," Bud sighed. "Once a wall or office is changed in an office area," he said as he gestured to a lattice of 50 or more cubes, "the whole area must be brought up to the current office specs."

I replied: "Yeah, so what does that mean? Can we have an open workspace area?"

Bud: "I am not sure of that detail, but if we change one ...