AA175 - Why You Need to Make Space Learn: Cognitive Load in Agile Software Development

In this episode Enterprise Agile Coach Om Patel and Product Manager Brian Orlando dive into the concept of cognitive load and how it impacts agile software development teams. 

Drawing from the 1988 paper "Cognitive Load During Problem Solving" by John Sweller, they discuss:

• What is cognitive load and how does it manifest on teams?
• Why the mental effort required for day-to-day problem solving doesn't necessarily lead to learning new skills 
• The importance of making space for developers to acquire new "schemas" or patterns through activities like communities of practice and pair programming
• How an overemphasis on utilization and treating problem solving as the primary means of learning can hamper a team's ability to grow their expertise
• Ideas for measuring and managing cognitive load on agile teams

If you're a product manager, agile leader or coach looking to enable your teams to continuously learn and improve, this is the episode for you!

0:00 Podcast Intro
0:11 Topic Intro: Cognitive Load
1:16 What is Cognitive Load
2:36 Claim #1: Problem Solving is Heavy Stuff
6:08 A Software Development Example, #1
8:11 Claim #2 Distinctly Different Learning Mechanisms
10:48 We're Too Busy to Improve
12:27 Being More Effective
14:35 Time to Innovate
15:55 Claim #3 - Normal Work Doesn't Lend to Learning
18:32 Sprint Goals
19:45 Claim #4 - Expertise Development
22:27 Making Space for Learning
24:06 Surprise: Taylorism
25:31 Utilization & Overhead
27:24 Claim #5 - Modification is Required
28:54 Pair Programming
30:33 Measuring Cognitive Load
34:20 Wrap-Up

cognitive load agile development, agile team learning, problem solving vs skill acquisition, managing cognitive load software teams, developer utilization agile, pair programming, communities of practice agile

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