Traffic jams

Let's talk about traffic jams. You know the rubber necking, when you are staring at the car in front and wave to the one next to you. Always curious what kind of men or women are also joining you on the highway? And you begin to wonder, why do I have to go through this almost every morning and afternoon? Does it make me glad to be on the road, or does it make me real mad? Let's ask ourselves a couple of other questions first.

First question is: what causes traffic jams?

You know that when one car reduces speed, the traffic behind that car reacts on it. So in short, if one car or more hit the breaks, even if it is a mild break, the cars behind these vehicles also hit the breaks. And most of the time they hit the break harder than the car in front, especially when they are close to each other. The smaller the distance between the cars, the greater the effect will be and the more likely there will be a traffic jam. Also when you are a not predictable vehicle, like when you're changing lanes a couple of times, you affect the other drivers as well and there it goes again.

Second question is: how can we stop the traffic jams?

The first answer is: if you, as a participant of the traffic jam, try to remain a constant speed, the traffic jam will dissolve. The second answer is a supplement of answer one: try to avoid making other car drivers nervous by not making sudden moves to the right or left. That will of course because car drivers hit the break and you start the effect all over again.

Third question is: how can we prevent traffic jams?

Sure there will be trouble on the road. There always will be! For instance, someone having a flat tire, or a bike falls off a car. Someone gets unwell.

So one truth in that is that you can never hold back the traffic jam for ever. So what do we need to do then? We can have less cars on the road, so it get's more containable or, like Google, have cars interact on each other and let the car do the driving for you. More alerting systems will help too. Drive steady and not with fluctuations. We can summarize this in one word: control! We do need more control on the road.

Why do I write a blog about traffic jams?

The first answer (just to stay in tune with the previous questions) is: it's fun! Second answer is: you probably know what I'm talking about! But let's see if you come up with the same comparison as I do.

The cars are the functionality that needs to be taken to the customer. The teams are steering the car. The stakeholder and managers are the people who want to get the drivers move faster on their project. They see gaps between the lanes next to the car and tell the driver to take that lane to speed up the project. So they are maneuvering the teams through the traffic. And if you tell the driver speed up, you are about to let him make more mistakes. The thing to do here to prevent traffic jams is to instruct the driver how to drive. Also the driver clearly has an appointment! If you need to travel more distance than you expected, or have less time then you expected then you logically have the urge to go faster. So maybe you had to schedule it for some time later, or should have hit the road much earlier. Be prepared! Take control! Just be sure you remain driving steady at your familiar speed.

So, do I feel happy on the road?

Maybe we need to ask ourselves: are we happy on the road? And furthermore, is the customer happy to have to wait for their functionality, because we didn't make it in the time we scheduled. Or if we do have it delivered in time, are they happy with a wreck then? Maybe we should also think about what the costs will be when we crash, for example the emergency services, the damage and the settlement with insurance companies. Your car can be prepared, but it will be lower in value.

Next post, coming up!

It’s so nice to talk in metaphors when you have such a vague subject to discuss about, you know! The next post I will publish will be about: how to control your projects and sprints and that one will be quite specific and not vague at all. Thanks for reading this through to the end. I hope you enjoyed it. And remember to comment beneath this post if you have any questions or submits.

By the way: in the Netherlands, the maximum speed is recently changed at some sections from 120 to 130 kilometers per hour. So keep in mind that we can change the speed, but we have to make sure we still don’t have fluctuations in speed and we have to make sure we make our goal in a well chosen time! Remember: it's all about control!