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Johanna’s Books
Category Archives: productivity
Is the Most Productive Employee Really the Most Productive?
I’ve discussed this situation with several managers recently. The manager says, “I have a wonderful developer, who can code circles around everyone else. If he doesn’t like someone else’s code, he rewrites it over the weekend. If he sees a … Continue reading
Measuring Productivity: More Difficult for Managers
Jack has an intriguing post, The fun of productivity measures. He ponders how to measure knowledge workers. For software project teams, it’s easy: the number of running, tested features over time. The features have to be complete. No partial credit … Continue reading
Catching Up is Not Possible
I’ve been sick for weeks, and am finally coming out of it to be close to healthy. (I was still coughing in the 8-degree Fahrenheit cold leaving the gym. Oh well.) One of the problems is that my work doesn’t … Continue reading
Posted in productivity
Tagged project management, project portfolio management, project success
9 Comments
Esther’s Insights re Specialists and Generalists
Esther has insights, Specialists AND Generalists, on Why Projects Don’t Need Specialists. Her point, that people tend to coalesce around their interests, and that as specialists, they may not share interests, is something I have also seen on projects. As … Continue reading
Inbox Zero is Hard for Me
This year, after I archived my last year’s inbox, I decided my email problem was getting worse, not better. “I’m Johanna Rothman, and I have a problem collecting email in my inbox.” I decided to make an effort, one day … Continue reading
Why Projects Don’t Need Specialists
I taught several PM workshops last week in Israel. The Israeli project managers have the same concerns that my US students do–it’s difficult to imagine moving to Agile or even just integrating agile methods into your project if you have … Continue reading
Posted in productivity
Tagged agile, project management, project team, transition to agile
22 Comments
Measuring Productivity #3: Possible Measurements
The zeroth measure of productivity is showing up. Sorry I haven’t been showing up, but I have to admit, sleeping is good :-) Ok, back to business. When I tried to calculate productivity of a team, here’s what I … Continue reading
Measuring Productivity #2: Measurement Considerations
When we think about manufacturing work, we measure labor productivity as the ratio of the output of goods and services to the labor hours devoted to the production of that output, output per hour. (See U.S. Dept of Labor) … Continue reading
Measuring Productivity #1: Defining Productivity
In the past few weeks, too many managers have written to me, asking for help on knowing how “good” their people are. When I ask more questions, such as “What does good mean to you?”, they say they want … Continue reading
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