With the timebox development technique, you can put clear time boundaries on tasks, keeping agile teams moving forward.
Nearly 70% of software projects fail to meet their original deadlines, costing companies billions in wasted resources each year, according to the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
What’s one of the main causes of this? Poor time management and scope creep that lets work expand indefinitely. But there’s a proven solution that’s helping development teams cut through the chaos and ship faster.
Achieving efficiency in software development can be traced back to the industry’s adoption of agile project management. As the development cycle for cloud-native applications gets shorter, developer teams are changing their processes. They now focus on frequent iteration and effective time management, including timeboxing.
In this article, we answer the question: What is a timebox, and why is it beneficial to developers, CTOs, and IT leaders? Read on to learn more about the role timeboxing plays in software project management.
Key Takeaways
- Timeboxing is a proven project management technique that sets fixed time limits for completing tasks, helping teams avoid endless scope creep and missed deadlines.
- A timebox approach helps development teams improve focus, enhance communication, and ship products faster.
- Whether you call them timeboxes or sprints, these time-bound work periods are essential to modern agile development and consistently lead to better outcomes for both teams and end users.
What Is a Timebox?
A timebox is a set amount of time given to complete a specific activity.
Timeboxes are typically used to break down long-term projects into manageable chunks. They encourage focus and attention. The goal is to finish the activity in the allotted time. But once the timebox runs out, the team will pause to track their progress.
As a team leader, you should do this regardless of whether or not the task is completed.
The exact timebox schedule varies from team to team and from project to project. If someone is working under a strict deadline, the timebox may be only one day. Or the timebox can span several weeks if a more time-consuming task is at hand. This should also help to reduce DevOps overload, which, as our exclusive report found, is a serious concern.
A variety of disciplines use some form of timeboxing to move projects forward. These include product marketing and human resources. But timeboxing has its origins in software. In fact, it remains a foundation behind most modern agile project management tools for developer teams.
A Brief History of Timeboxing
James Martin, author of Rapid Application Development, is credited with being the first to use the term. His reasoning for placing a time limit on tasks is based on Parkinson’s law. This law comes from another book, Parkinson’s Law, a philosophical doctrine by a naval historian, Cyril Northcote Parkinson.
Parkinson developed the theory that any existing work will expand to fill the time allotted to it, like being given a month to configure CI/CD pipelines manually. He observed something interesting. If someone is given a month to complete a project, they will stretch the task out until the end of the month. This happens even though they could have easily finished it in half the time.
Martin saw Parkinson’s law as especially relevant to software development. In the late 1980s, he and his peers identified significant failures in the waterfall model. This is a linear project workflow in which stages move sequentially from one team to the next. Software development processes were slow-going at the time.
Because there was little communication between the teams responsible for the various stages, errors could easily propagate through to the end of the development cycle. This meant the entire application could become useless after months of work.
Many developers took issue with this approach. Martin and others worked toward a new model for creating software, called rapid application development (RAD).
RAD allowed for an interactive, iterative approach. Teams worked in short bursts of time. They stayed in constant communication with each other and their stakeholders.
Timeboxing development emerged as a way to reduce inefficiency. As many dev teams are finding, if you combine this with automation, it makes developers even more efficient.
At the same time, timeboxing is helping developers stick to one planned activity at a time.
The results could then be evaluated and improved upon immediately, versus waiting until the solution is ready to test for errors.
Timeboxing vs. Time Blocking
Time blocking is a popular productivity method that gets a lot of attention. But it is not the same as timeboxing.
Time blocking is setting aside a specific period to accomplish something. For example, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. can be used as a ‘meeting block’ on someone’s schedule. This is a time block that is usually dedicated to calls, Slack messages, and emails.
Timeboxing refers to the amount of time in a specific timebox. This means the total amount of time someone has to accomplish a task. But one could time-block a chunk of their day specifically for a timebox.
What Is Timeboxing in Software Project Management
Even if you find yourself thinking, “How come I’ve never heard of this? What is a timebox?”, you’ve probably encountered this project management term under a different name. Sprints, used by Scrum teams, are a variation of a timebox.
Sprint length tends to be predetermined. For example, it might always be two weeks. Sprint length does not vary by project, but conceptually, they’re aligned with timeboxes. At the end of each sprint, teams hold a sprint review to evaluate their progress and plan next steps.
Technology companies as diverse as Dropbox, DoorDash, Amazon, and Spotify use sprints and other timeboxing techniques. They use them to iterate and ship updates quickly.
Benefits of Using Timeboxes in Development
Improved Focus
Human brains are not made for multitasking. No one knows that better than developers. Writing code requires a great deal of concentration. This concentration can only be sustained for a limited period of time.
Working in batches using a timebox approach helps DevOps teams maintain focus and stay fully present. On the flipside, timeboxing can be better for developers’ work-life balance. Moving from one timeboxed task to another provides built-in boundaries to protect time for things outside of work.
More Effective Communication
As with all agile project management tools, the primary goal of timeboxing is efficiency. Improved communication is a big part of that equation.
Working closely together for extended periods makes it easier for teams to listen to feedback. It also helps create a sense of camaraderie. This leads to better team culture and a stronger end product.
Timeboxes also force teams to focus on the same thing simultaneously, which significantly improves communication.
Faster Time to Market
It’s hard to fully answer the question “What is a timebox?” without mentioning time-to-market. Teams that use timeboxes can put the brakes on time-wasting or non-essential activities, like non-automated DevOps, resulting in a faster pace and a speedier time to market.
That means automating some tasks so developers can focus on building unique code versus re-creating basic architecture.
Luckily, there are numerous automation tools on the market, but using an AI platform is by far the easiest way to get built-in security features and meet compliance requirements. You can learn more about how AI platforms can help teams maintain manageable project schedules in this whitepaper.
Using an AI platform is by far the easiest way to get built-in security features and meet compliance requirements.
Better Outcomes for End Users
Timeboxed periods usually end with evaluations and feedback, which naturally leads to iteration and improvement. If the task was not completed within the allotted time, teams can discuss their pain points and brainstorm solutions to adjust workflow processes and complete the required milestones in the next timebox.
Because there is a constant focus on improvement, timeboxing tasks results in higher-quality software outcomes.
Because there is a constant focus on improvement, timeboxing tasks results in better solutions.
Timeboxing Key Takeaways
Timeboxing is a proven project management technique that sets fixed time limits for completing tasks. It helps teams avoid endless scope creep and missed deadlines. By breaking work into manageable chunks with clear boundaries, development teams can:
- Improve focus
- Enhance communication
- Ship products faster.
Whether you call them timeboxes or sprints, these time-bound work periods are essential to modern agile development. Both approaches consistently lead to better outcomes for developers and DevOps teams, businesses, and end users.
Work Smarter with DuploCloud
Our AI platform speeds up deployment by ten times on average and lowers the cost of a standard application lifecycle by 75%.
Developers using DuploCloud can use our self-service hub to build, deploy, and manage applications with out-of-the-box compliance protocols already in place. Reach out to schedule a demo.
Timeboxing Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What’s the difference between a timebox and a sprint?
A sprint is actually a specific type of timebox used in Scrum methodology. While all sprints are timeboxes, not all timeboxes are sprints. Sprints typically last 2 weeks. They include specific events like sprint planning, daily standups, and sprint reviews.
Timeboxes are a broader concept. They can be applied to any activity with a set time limit. This works regardless of the project management framework being used.
Both share the same core principle: setting firm time boundaries to drive focus and prevent work from expanding unnecessarily.
How long should a timebox be?
The ideal timebox length depends on the task’s complexity and your team’s workflow. Standard timebox durations range from a single day for urgent tasks to several weeks for more complex activities. Most agile teams find that timeboxes of 1 to 2 weeks strike the best balance.
Maintaining momentum while allowing enough time for meaningful progress is crucial. The key is consistency. Once you establish a timebox length that works for your team, stick with it. This way, everyone can develop a sustainable rhythm and accurately track their velocity over time.
What happens if we don’t complete the task within the timebox?
A timebox ending doesn’t mean work stops entirely. It means it’s time to pause and evaluate. When a planned activity isn’t completed within the original strict deadline, teams and managers should review what was accomplished. This time of reflection and feedback can be used to identify blockers and decide on next steps.
Sometimes this means carrying the work into the next timebox with adjusted expectations.
Other times, it reveals that the task was too large for a 2-week timebox window. It needs to be broken down further. The sprint review or evaluation at the end of each timebox is crucial for learning. It helps improve your estimation skills over time.
Can timeboxing work for non-development teams?
Yes, definitely. While the timeboxing technique originated in software development, it’s now used across many disciplines. Including marketing, HR, sales, and operations. Any team that struggles with scope creep, missed deadlines, or difficulty prioritizing can benefit from timeboxing.
The core principles are universally applicable. These include setting clear time boundaries, focusing on one activity at a time, and regularly evaluating progress. Teams simply need to adapt the timebox length and structure to fit their specific workflows and objectives.
