A focused team is many times more productive than an unfocused one.

There are many reasons for this. Having a team focus on a smaller subset of functionality gives us the same benefits as not having the team work on multiple projects at the same time. Context switching is less, and the team will finish functionality faster. Once a piece of the application is finished, it can give powerful feedback to the team, which is helpful for the next task.

A focused team just feels different. It’s not the same as a team under a lot of pressure. In a focused team, there is a sense of urgency and there are a lot of positive interactions in the team. People feel like they have a good chance of succeeding with their goal and take great pride in their work.

These are three ways you can use to focus your team.

Create a iteration theme
For the next iteration, make sure that all the stories being played are closely related. This allows the developers to learn more about that specific part of the domain while they code. Also, since everyone works on code in the same area, pair switching is not something that slows the team down. Everyone is already up to speed on that part of the application. Focusing on a specific part of the application will make the team more productive.

Ship working software
I think that the single most important thing a software team can do to make better software is to ship regularly to real users. Two things stand out as important in this practice. The feedback you get from both the act of shipping, and the users is invaluable. The other win is that the pressure of shipping focuses the team in a way that nothing else can. Knowing that there are real users out there, waiting for software you write, pushes the team to focus.

Agree on the teams working hours
I don’t know a lot of people that can pair-program for eight hours straight, every day. Instead, have the team decide working hours, and make sure that is the time when everyone pairs. The rest of the time can be used to fill out time sheets, answering emails, reading up on your blogs – whatever you need to do to stay fresh. Focusing the hours you work will make the team more productive, and remove the frustration of not having the people you need available when you need them.