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Johanna’s Books
Tag Archives: project team
Hours, Velocity, Silo’d Teams, & Gantts
I’ve been having some email conversations with some project and program managers turned Scrum Masters. In general here’s how things have proceeded: Their organizations decided agile was a great idea Their organizations decided Scrum was a great idea to implement … Continue reading
Reduce Friction
On the bike at the gym this morning, I thought about increasing my level. When I exercise, more friction is good. But when you develop or use products, more friction is bad. Brian Marick talks about this when he speaks … Continue reading
Posted in program management
Tagged friction, project, project management, project team, technical debt
2 Comments
The Value of a Demo
Some teams don’t do demos at the end of their iterations. Many of the teams who don’t do demos also have trouble finishing all the stories they committed to at the beginning of the iteration. They continue, iteration to iteration, … Continue reading
“Ideal” Team Size and Ratios
A client recently asked me how many people should be on his agile team. “I have a two-person project here, and a 23-person project there. Do I want two teams, one of 2 and one of 23? Oh, and how … 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
Breaking Free of Legacy Projects
If you’ve never been a victim of Medieval software project management, wow, I’m impressed. You don’t have to read the rest of this post. But if you’ve ever tried to break free of a legacy product/project, and haven’t been able … Continue reading
Posted in project management
Tagged management, project, project portfolio management, project team, team
8 Comments
Handoffs Don’t Work
I recently spoke with a project manager. He was concerned about the product managers handing off the requirements to the development staff. He was right to be concerned. Handoffs don’t work. The more people think they are done with “their” … Continue reading
Well-Organized and Run Retrospectives Are Not a Nuisance
Jurgen wrote Lesson Learned: Automate Project Evaluations a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been trying to find a nice way to explain that no, Jurgen is wrong. I can’t do it. Jurgen, You are WRONG. If anyone here is doing … Continue reading
When You’re in Chaos, Try Baby Steps
About a month ago, I spoke with a project manager who’d inherited a project in chaos. No one was making progress. He was stumped–he’d never worked on a project where the developers couldn’t do anything, the testers couldn’t do anything, … Continue reading
Posted in implement by feature
Tagged inch pebble, project management, project team, timebox
4 Comments
Whose Standup Is It?
Esther and I were teaching a Behind Closed Doors tutorial at Better Software yesterday. One of the participants was a program manager. He couldn’t see the value of the standup meetings the Scrum teams used every day. “They talk … Continue reading
