So I know everyone here is all about private offices, how many developers actually have them. I am sort of half skeptical. I can believe that lead developers have them, but that's normally just one person in your average office.

That makes me wonder, how many developers have private offices. Which leads to the actual question: why should they have them?

In the management world, where concentration on a task is not an issue, offices are a means to represent status. They think "private office == more status, big private office == even more status, etc."

What most people fail to understand: Every time our concentration is broken, we create at least one bug and/or delay the deadline for another half-hour. Private offices is not a "nice to have" for developers but a must. This is not about status, this is about brain physics. 

Working in an open space costs at least 30% productivity (I read that in a newspaper, start with this blog post if you want to know more). Worst part: This goes unnoticed. If you always work in such an environment, you'll never notice that it happens! Until you wonder why your neck is stiff, you feel tense/nervous all the time, etc.

If you want another productivity increase, take the telephones away, too. Unless you're doing production support, the next day is always soon enough.

To relax the team, supply free soft drinks. That costs $100-300/month for a team of 10 and makes sure they take regular breaks, drink enough (so they don't dehydrate).

The funny thing is: These aren't a bunch of myths but hard facts. Still, most companies ignore these simple, cheap ways to boost productivity. Well, except for the successful ones, of course (Google, Microsoft, etc).

See also:


Open Offices Reduce Productivity and Increase Stress
The High Cost of Interruptions
A study on unplanned interruptions in software development
How to explain a layperson why a developer should not be interrupted while neck-deep in coding?

