In the article posted in Science Daily, University of Michigan researchers found that teams working in a 'War Room' shared environment were up to twice as productive as those in a non-colocated environment:
Teams of workers that labored together for several months in specially designed "war rooms" were twice as productive as their counterparts working in traditional office arrangements...This sparked a Lean-Agile-Scrum thread discussion,some for and some against the concept. Jay Vandewark commented:
...one-room locations do have drawbacks and I believe that one-room locations are the weakest practice advocated by agilists.However Ron Jeffries' viewpoint differs - stating:
My bottom line, though, is that I have observed the team room effect:Are InfoQ readers thoughts on 'War Rooms'? Are they neccessary for a team that already buzzes? Indeed do InfoQ readers have any ideas about the layout of a room that fosters greater productivity? Take a look at the thread and post your comments below or on the thread.
and it is substantial enough to make me believe that it is by far one of the strongest of the Agile practices, not the weakest. Still needs to be tempered by other considerations, but it would be very unwise to dismiss it, in my opinion.
- on my own teams;
- on other people's teams;
- in the literature;