Work Envelopes

We are familiar with work packs. Going forward work envelopes are more realistic for knowledge workers.

We will take a brief look at the need for and application of knowledge work envelopes.

Cognitive Lead Time is the unforeseen and unmanaged effort that goes into learning and application to deliver value. It causes delays that affect most projects and value realisation. It is compounded when many people are involved.

In order to appreciate cognitive lead time it will help to explain and visualise it.

A quick overview

Lets start where successful teaching stops: the top level of Bloom's taxonomy.


Figure 1 - Blooms Taxonomy

And pick up synthesis in a standard, 4 step, value driven applied learning process.


Figure 2 - Scan Design Deliver Value [SDDV] (A commercially aware knowledge worker's version of Plan, Do, Check, Act)

Technological advances in music from Moog to software synthesis enables shaping of sounds in envelopes. We can apply a similar technique to work envelopes.

We can map the Attack, Sustain, Decay, Release envelope to Scan, Design, Deliver, Value envelopes.


Figure 3.2 - SDDV

Cognitive Lead Time is the area under the red and orange section of the envelope.

This results in work envelopes rather than work packs. It is a truer reflection of many backlogs.

Application to knowledge work

By assessing how much work is needed in the scan and design sections it is possible to make time for the preliminary tasks then confidently commit to delivering value.

Doctors Norman Doidge and Bessel Van Der Kolk, to name two, state that it takes six weeks for neuro-plasticity to take effect and allow people to make changes. Obviously this applies to heavy lift learning more than small scale change. The best teams I worked in had regular look ahead sessions. There are now faster release cycles based on six week periods. In agile terms that is a release every two to three sprints. Of course small updates can be done continuously...as was always the case.

Division of labour between design and delivery can affect team level productivity because learning may need to be done by different people. Again the best teams would have one person train in a topic then share their new knowledge with the other members.

To protect against automation we should use aesthetics to differentiate us from the coming neuro-mimetic machines. We should use our creative powers and hand over the drudge work to silicon sisypheans. This is the acceptable face of slavery.

The mappings below shows instrument type to shape to work envelope. The differentiation between the genres points to different project types. This can be considered as the musical equivalent of shearing as proposed by Frank Duffy then applied to software by Gartner.

Past - Orchestral: Opera, Symphony, Overture = Waterfall

Instrument Shape Work Envelope
Horns More up front work (tuning), little design then delivery and value is complex as it fades
Strings More up front work (tuning) medium design then delivery and value is complex as it fades
Woodwind More up front work (tuning), a lot of design then delivery and value is complex as it fades

Present - Pop: Three minute singles or albums = Agile

Instrument Shape Work Envelope
Drum This is a simple piece of work and done easily and provides lasting value. It may be an empathetic directive from above.
Bass Immediate start (too much too soon?), some design, short delivery, low value
Guitar Has an immediate scan a short period of analysis and then delivery. Value is quickly delivered.

Future - Synth: Use the studio as an instrument = Generative

Instrument Shape Work Envelope
Synth Basic Cuts through the noise and provides fast value
Synth Lead Emulate the percussive instruments
Synth Pad More complex with slow start, design that blends into deliver (a spike?) and delivers rich value
Synth Texture Slow start, detailed design leading to delivery and processed value that can repeat as it fades

Simple Examples of work envelopes in a backlog

The table shows 5 user stories. The story, user points and effort are standard: envelopes are added - and can be changed by clicking on them. All columns apply sorting.

Story Points Size Envelope
As an editor viewing a submission, I want the system to clearly display the version I am viewing through a clear numbering/versioning system. 30 50
As a journal representative, I want to be able to send a submission back to an author to make requested changes. 25 30
As an Author I want to be able to decline to revise my manuscript at anytime including after I have already agreed to revise. 65 20
As a corresponding author, I want to validate, check and and confirm that my revision is suitable for submission. 12 5
As an admin viewing a submission, I want the system to clearly display the version I am viewing through a clear numbering/versioning system. 80 40

So What?

So What is always a good question.

Riffing on the musical metphor - So What? is also seminal tune by Miles Davis. It is the opening track on Kind of Blue, a 1959 album that evolved Jazz.

You may not like Jazz - That is fine. Few people like all genres of music. People have different preferences. It is similar to biases regarding fashions and fads of management methods.

We do, however, need to recognise that work, like music, evolves as organisations respond to external conditions. Those fads and fashions affect us as workers.

Learning is a key resource now. More so than when manufacturing was the main commercial paradigm.

This way of visualising work helps identify cognitive lead time and manage it using the appropriate learning. Sampling from open repositories is a common way of learning that Bloom did not foresee.

The Scan Design Deliver Value cycle fosters smart creativity and differentiates humans from automata. Are you a listener, player, composer or conductor in the world of work?

Sensible organisations will reskill their staff to be smart creative players who apply learning and hand off drudge jobs to automation.

If you find this visualisation approach interesting try the beta modeller.

Once you are familiar with the process try SCRUM software development process with "value in the backs".