Continuous Performance Management at a Glance

Does every member of your team know exactly what they should be doing today to maximize team productivity, or are assignments left to chance?

Reports and studies from Harvard Business Review, McKinsey & Company, Y Combinator, TechCrunch, and CB Insights consistently highlight that young companies often struggle with low returns on growing investments in their teams. This issue is particularly prevalent among startups undergoing rapid growth or major organizational changes.

In my experience, one of the primary reasons companies hire executives is to manage resources during crises when expenses climb, and ROI drops. Even if this goal is not explicitly stated in the job description, every senior leader knows that resource control and optimization are their top priorities to ensure a successful start in the company.

"Development without proper resource management is the slowest route to release" - this seems to be the modern version of Sun Tzu's principle, "Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory" in the context of IT development. But let's take a closer look at how resource management is organized in a typical IT company.

Imagine an ideal team operating under the «Perfect Scrum» or any other ideal delivery process where operational risks do not disrupt the current sprint plans; a team made up of experienced professionals who proactively strive to maximize productivity and work toward overall success; a team with engaged leaders who eliminate downtime and incomplete tasks - even in such an ideal case, effective performance-managed teams are difficult for several reasons outlined below.

To begin with, much of the delivery practices, such as backlog refinement, sprint planning, demos, and reviews, focus on managing changes to product functionality rather than team performance issues, as opposed to ceremonies such as retrospectives and standups. However, these, too, are often ineffective because they are based on common task-tracking systems such as Jira, Trello, Notion, MS Project, etc. These systems either do not sufficiently cover resource management functions or are too complex for daily use by every team member. As a result, retrospectives turn into discussions about the team's internal climate, and standups feel more like a roll call than an effective performance management tool.

Based on my more than 25 years of management experience with various management practices and systems, including both electronic and tangible tools, I can state that effective performance management is greatly simplified when every stakeholder can see the plan and progress of the whole team and each employee for any time (day, sprint) on one common page/screen. So, this is exactly the goal of the "One-Page Delivery Calendar" I developed. Wondering how it works? I'll tell you in more detail...

One-Page Delivery Calendar

1 - Sprint Backlog

• Sorted list with color differentiation by status.
• The first column displays the sequence number of the week (sprint) when the task was backlogged but not yet moved to the archive list. Such tasks are marked with a dark gray background at the top of the list.
• Task names are presented as links to tickets with detailed information (for example, in Notion).
• The "Ds" column shows the current total number of days elapsed from the start of work on the task to release.

2 - Deliver Team List

• Color differentiation on employees' specialization (backend, frontend, mobile, QA).
• The number of tasks each employee is involved in and the ability to filter on the tasks involved.
• The number and filter on of tasks each employee is involved in.

3 - Calendar of Works

• Each day of the week is divided into two parts. Experience has shown that tasks shorter than one day are common, and tasks much shorter than half a day are more convenient to combine and manage as one task for half a day.
• Each task is assigned to a specialist, with visual cues for planned (marked with a lighter background), and work-reported tasks (a darker background) to provide clear status updates.
• The released tasks are marked in column "R".
• The "RW" column shows the number of days worked on the task during the current week.
• The current day is highlighted with a blue background.

4 - Team Workload Table

• 1 on the gray background indicates that an employee is scheduled to work on one task during this period.
• 1 on the white background indicates that the employee has reported for one task during this period.
• 1 on a red background indicates that one task was scheduled for this period, but the employee did not report on its fulfillment.
• A red number greater than 1 on a yellow background indicates that the employee has more than one task for that period. In rare cases, this may be justified, but more often it indicates a resource conflict that needs to be resolved.
• A blank cell on a red background indicates that the employee has no tasks in this period.

There are additional sections that are hidden most of the time and are expanded as needed:

There is also an information panel

• "Collaborators" column displays a list of employees who have reported working on the task.
• "TW" - the number of days during which the task was worked on, excluding idle periods.
• "Start" - day of the month and number of the week when reported work on the task started.
• «Last» - day of the month and number of the week of the last reported activity on the task.
• "DT" - percentage ratio of idle time to the total time of task execution.
• "Ds" - total number of days elapsed from the start of work on the task until release, or until the current day if the task is not released yet.
• The longer the task remains in work and the higher the ratio of downtime to the active development phase, the redder the background of the cells reflecting these values becomes.

The Magic of Laconic Visualization

The immediate boost in team productivity after implementing the Delivery Calendar may initially seem almost magical. However, as users become familiar with the system, it becomes evident that this improvement is a natural result of increased engagement from both stakeholders and team members in informed and effective self-management. This engagement is driven by the visibility and transparency seamlessly integrated into the Delivery Calendar.

Anyone who has planned sprints knows that relying on the team’s current velocity to plan the next sprint doesn’t guarantee balanced workloads for every team member. From sprint to sprint (or week to week), tasks often vary significantly in workload between frontend, backend, mobile development, and QA. This disparity can lead to some team members being overwhelmed while others are underutilized. The calendar's visual planning shows each specialist's workload. It helps with sprint planning that better aligns with the team's capacity.

The use of color coding and halftones makes navigating the system and the information perception intuitive and effortless from the very first interaction. Delivery Calendar can also be easily customized to meet your current needs in just a few hours or even minutes by a single specialist. For simplicity, I’ve deliberately excluded descriptions and screenshots of additional implemented features to focus on the core concept. Built on the widely popular cloud-based platform Google Tables (or Microsoft Excel 365), the system ensures 24/7/365 online access for all stakeholders. Moreover, it can seamlessly integrate with your corporate ecosystem via its provided web API.

If your team struggles with overloads or underutilization, implementing a system like the One-Page Delivery Calendar will catalyze self-management and significantly enhance team productivity quickly. However, its potential extends far beyond immediate efficiency improvements.

The Delivery Calendar can act as a quickly deployable crisis management tool, stabilizing operations during periods of uncertainty or transition. Additionally, it can serve as a functional prototype and a driving force for developing a more advanced corporate workforce management system. With its affordability, rapid implementation, and proven ability to boost productivity, the One-Page Delivery Calendar enhances organizational flexibility and delivers measurable improvements in the ROI of software development and related departments.

How can a simple tool like the One-Page Delivery Calendar create transformational value across your organization?

Beyond operational improvements, the Delivery Calendar lays the groundwork for broader corporate transformation:

Controlled Growth and Scalability: By structuring work more effectively at every level, the Delivery Calendar minimizes inefficiencies during periods of rapid expansion. This helps organizations scale their operations while maintaining predictable and sustainable results.

Transparent Alignment with Business Goal: The system’s transparency ensures that stakeholders and team members operate from a shared understanding. This fosters alignment with business objectives and greater commitment to achieving key performance indicators (KPIs).

Flexibility and Adaptability: Designed with scalability in mind, the Delivery Calendar integrates seamlessly into existing corporate ecosystems. It enables organizations to respond quickly to shifting priorities and market conditions, strengthening their strategic competitiveness in a dynamic business environment.

In conclusion, the One-Page Delivery Calendar is not just a tool for operational improvements - it’s a foundation for cultural and strategic transformation. Whether used as a standalone solution or as a stepping stone toward a comprehensive management system, it equips teams with clarity, focus, and the flexibility needed to thrive in today’s fast-paced business environment.