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I am a programmer working in an open-space environment. There are basically two types of people which make it difficult to use pomodoro:

  1. Those, who want something completely trivial every 10 minutes or so, which can wait without a problem or, even better, is completely irrelevant to me.
  2. People who visit rarely but I can't tell them to wait because they either are both completely deaf to anything while not respect your time or concentration much, and are higher in the hierarchy - product owners. It isn't enough to say "I'll do it once I finish X", I have to repeat it a couple of times in different ways while ensuring that "Yes, it will be my top priority". It's not about me failing to fulfill my own promises, it's just how a person is.

I'd like to start using the technique because, frankly, it sounds really good on the paper, but the above is something which might result in voiding a lot of pomodoros.

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Keep a gape of 1-2 answer or 10-15 mins between 2 questions. Sometime one answer of your problem may resolve your another problem too. :) – articlestack Feb 15 at 11:14
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Personally, I would raise the problem with management. It is their job to keep things running smoothly and avoid interruptions. They're paid more than you because they're expected to figure out problems like this. Sometimes they just don't realize that the environment is unproductive because nobody tells them. – Muz Feb 18 at 0:42

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Some studies suggest open-space environments lower working efficiency with 2-10% due to interruptions, stress and noise. What you describe is clearly one of the adverse effects. If you'd had a room you could've put up a busy sign or similar. In an open-space it can be very hard to make higher-hierarchy people abstain from disturbing you whenever they like.

I'd say you need a product owner to be your gate-keeper, forcing everybody with programming work to go through him or her. Gaining organisational acceptance for a software methodology like Scrum, which uses a public backlog which everyone can see, will strengthen this further. Then you'd work in sprints where you simply don't accept new mid-sprint assignments. After a while hopefully people would understand and respect this.

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The problem is that this product owner requires these hundreds of assurations. As for Scrum, we are already working under this methodology, but... Well, it doesn't work that well in my company, there is always something important that has to be done yesterday, and it's not up to me to decline these tasks. Besides, everyone would consider it a bad team play, because 'communication is most important' (especially if you are doing a second thing in the middle of the first, and suddenly they want you to do a third or a fourth one). – Maurycy Zarzycki Feb 15 at 11:26
@Maurycy Zarzycki: If you allow people to interfere with the Scrum process, then strictly speaking you're not really using Scrum. You need to be more strict about the process. – Gruber Feb 15 at 12:24
I know, the teammates know, the team leader knows, but there is nothing we can do about it, although we try our best to limit the unplanned stuff. It's just that the change was sudden, and we were a 'throw-all' team, doing stuff no one else wanted. We're at 10th sprint and I still think we work more in a "shifing-priority queue" style. – Maurycy Zarzycki Feb 15 at 12:28
@Maurycy Zarzycki: If the upper management of your organisation say they want Agile but doesn't respect the rules of the game, then the prospects don't look too good. This could be the root cause of your productivity problems. – Gruber Feb 15 at 12:38
Haha, 2-10% is very vague. I know in my current workplace, an open environment is more productive than an office, because people avoid interruptions unless absolutely necessary. For open offices with selfish/needy people, I know it can drop more than 80% -- some barely accomplish anything at all. – Muz Feb 18 at 0:39
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I'll suggest not to go for pomodoro. Because making a small time box for development tasks is really not a good idea. But you can go for pair programming.

Pair programming is a good concept for programmers where 2 minds work together on single problem at a time. And each one from pair respect other's time. So don't get distracted. It is also a good reason to tell other people why you can't leave your work in between.

Pomodoro is nothing but a technique to reduce your distraction.

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The problem with pair programming is that it requires another programmer, so it's paying twice for doing one job (that's how upper management would say anyway) - it's completely impossible for me. – Maurycy Zarzycki Feb 15 at 11:22
I agree with you. However pomodoro will not help you. Better prepare some gantt chart to make your self involve in the activity. And express your pressure, whether you have or not, to other people. So they will disturb you less. – articlestack Feb 15 at 11:52
And express your pressure, whether you have or not, to other people Sadly this doesn't seem to work well with some people :(. I can't see how Gantt chart will help me concentrate more on the work, since we already estimate each and every task, and what I am looking for is what you said in your last sentence: "Reduce my distraction". – Maurycy Zarzycki Feb 15 at 11:58
@MaurycyZarzycki, I feel you are questioning for "how to handle people distracting you". Because Pomodoro is about reducing external distraction and increase concentration from inside by creating a small pressure of time box as we feel in exams. – articlestack Feb 16 at 3:36

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