<story><title>Programmer Interrupted</title><url>http://blog.ninlabs.com/2013/01/programmer-interrupted/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>DrJokepu</author><text>Curiously enough, in my experience, the vast majority of interruption I receive is not from &quot;external sources&quot; but rather from other developers, typically junior members of the team seeking advice or guidance. I wonder how you would address that?</text></item><item><author>hkmurakami</author><text>I&apos;m a PM, and I consider it my most important responsibility to prevent interruptions from reaching developers. By redirecting inwards-bound interruptions to myself, I&apos;ve probably reduced developer interruptions by 80% since I started.&lt;p&gt;What I&apos;ve found is that the typical developer/engineer is really bad at saying &quot;no&quot; or &quot;not now&quot; to others. The solution then is to work the other side (sales, marketing, etc) to interrupt someone else (me) instead. Even if it&apos;s a relatively simple technical question from sales, I can convert the in-person active interruption to a passive email notice (at the very least).&lt;p&gt;The typical office environment (and system) is not productive, so at this point it&apos;s up to the individuals to reduce the impact of the system on the team&apos;s productivity. (which is a sad reality...)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>gpcz</author><text>Part of that depends on the type of advice or guidance.  Some of it might be a symptom of the project&apos;s bus factor being too low (inadequate documentation, ambiguities or holes in processes, etc), which your organization can fix by paying down some of that technical/process debt.  Other forms of advice (career-related, higher-level tech stuff, etc) would seem more like a mentor role.  For that stuff, you may want to schedule &quot;mentor time&quot; in a slot advantageous for yourself, such as the last hour of the day.</text></comment>
<story><title>Programmer Interrupted</title><url>http://blog.ninlabs.com/2013/01/programmer-interrupted/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>DrJokepu</author><text>Curiously enough, in my experience, the vast majority of interruption I receive is not from &quot;external sources&quot; but rather from other developers, typically junior members of the team seeking advice or guidance. I wonder how you would address that?</text></item><item><author>hkmurakami</author><text>I&apos;m a PM, and I consider it my most important responsibility to prevent interruptions from reaching developers. By redirecting inwards-bound interruptions to myself, I&apos;ve probably reduced developer interruptions by 80% since I started.&lt;p&gt;What I&apos;ve found is that the typical developer/engineer is really bad at saying &quot;no&quot; or &quot;not now&quot; to others. The solution then is to work the other side (sales, marketing, etc) to interrupt someone else (me) instead. Even if it&apos;s a relatively simple technical question from sales, I can convert the in-person active interruption to a passive email notice (at the very least).&lt;p&gt;The typical office environment (and system) is not productive, so at this point it&apos;s up to the individuals to reduce the impact of the system on the team&apos;s productivity. (which is a sad reality...)</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>epochwolf</author><text>I sit right next to a tester and he is a constant source of distraction.</text></comment>