When managing development teams, it’s important to know their current workload. OIDR is one way to gauge this. It provides insight into a team’s ability to handle incoming workload and resolve issues in a timely manner. In this article we will explain what is outstanding issue disposal rate, how it can be used to get current workload of team and how to use it for managing resources.
What is outstanding issue disposal rate
Outstanding issue disposal rate(OIDR) assesses the workload of a team. It works by combining backlogs, number of issues resolved and number of new issues in a given period into a single easily understandable value that can be used to assess the workload.It is defined as ratio of total issues at the end of the measurement period to total issues at the beginning.
A low issue disposal rate(less than 1) indicates that the development team is working effectively and efficiently, with minimal delays and backlogs. On the other hand, a high issue disposal rate(greater than 1) indicates that the team is facing challenges in resolving incoming tasks, leading to delays and increased workload. A consistently high issue disposal rate can be a warning sign of potential burnout and suggests the need for intervention to address the root cause of the problem. OIDR value of 1 equates to steady state where number of issues resolved is equal to number of new issues arrived or if no issues were resolved but there were no incoming isues either.
Using OIDR for managing work
OIDR can help us in following ways
- Managing staffing of development team
- Assessing the load on development team
Managing staffing of development team
Hiring takes time, you need to advertise, get candidates, conduct multiple interviews and than release the offer. Even if the candidates accepts the offer it still takes time to serve the notice period and join the company and onboarding to your companies environment. Meanwhile your projects continue to suffer due to understaffing and increased workload. It would have been great if this situation could be predicted before the workload became unmanagable. This is where OIDR can help if the OIDR is consistently high, it suggests the need for additional staffing this gives you early indication that if work continues at current pace it would require more resources.
Assessing the load on development team
Planning new work requires prioritization and scheduling. Priority would be driven by business requirements and may not be in your control however scheduling of new work or features can be done in such a way that it does not overload your team. This can be done by assessing the current workload of your team and scheduling new work at a time when worload is less than the team’s capacity. If the OIDR is consistently low, it indicates that the team has the capacity to take on additional work. You can use it schedule new features based on it.
Limitations of OIDR
While the issue disposal rate can be a useful metric for measuring the efficiency of a development team in resolving incoming tasks, it’s important to understand that it’s not a one-size-fits-all solution. In some cases, the issue disposal rate may not be a good metric to use, and context is critical in judging its validity.
For instance it is possible to have high OIDR when multiple ticketing systems are involved and not all of them are used to measure OIDR. In this case even though the work is going on it is not getting captured in OIDR so blindly following OIDR would not be prudent.
It is also possible that low priority tickets are deliberately kept open to ensure that they are on record which will affect the OIDR but is not really a cause of concern as tickets are getting closed based on priority.
In short, it’s important to consider the context when evaluating the issue disposal rate as a metric. While it can be a useful tool in measuring the workload of a development team, it’s important to understand the limitations and use it in conjunction with other metrics and contextual information to get a complete picture.
Conclusion and recap
In conclusion, the issue disposal rate is a valuable metric for measuring the workload of a development team. By tracking the rate, the team can assess their workload and make informed staffing and planning decisions however it is not replacement for human judgement and should be used along with contextual information about project. This metric provides valuable insights into the team’s workload and can help organizations to optimize resources and improve overall efficiency.