Author name: Johanna

I help you identify and solve the problems that prevent you from releasing systems, hiring the right people, deciding which project to work on next. I take a pragmatic approach: what will work best for you, now? Some people call me a focuser. Some call me an accelerator. When I work with people, first we define our goal together. Typically, it's to get a better product out the door faster. I work with my clients to help managers figure out how to do the managing better, and how the technical contributors can contribute better, not to create a by-the-book system. I work with you, your staff, and your current product development practices. Together, we learn what works well for you and what doesn't. I believe in changing only what needs to be changed at the current time, to maximize your success. We work together to develop a blueprint for the future, and to build in capacity to recognize and implement change.

MPD, product ownership

New Practical Product Ownership Workshop Dates

I just posted the dates for the next Practical Product Ownership workshop: Deliver What Your Customers Need. It starts Aug 23, 2016. You need this workshop if: You are having trouble doing everything in your PO role, you might be trying to do too much. See Product Manager, Product Owner, Business Analyst? You are having

management, MPD

Survey About Technical Managers

Marcus Blankenship and I are conducting a survey of technical managers. If you are or have been a technical manager, please take the survey here: . Oh, and I was so curious about how many female/male managers there were, we had to ask that question. Yes, I said to Marcus, “We have to ask!” He laughed

Articles

Stay Agile with Discovery, pt 1

Cindy works for AgileSoft as the Product Owner for its clients. AgileSoft contracted with Acme to do product development for its marketing website. Acme sells a variety of products and services, and wants the website to serve all audiences, from casual browsers to long-time customers. Acme’s Marketing, Sales and IT teams are involved, but Acme’s

newsletter

Use the Power of Your Rumor Mill

Use the Power of Your Rumor Mill Project and program managers often ask, “How can I get people to work across teams? I don’t want to delay people or solve problems for them when they can solve problems themselves. I just don’t know what to try.” My advice: Use the rumor mill. You’ve seen the

Articles

Is Your Product Owner an Overloaded Operator?

In software, overloaded operators exist when an operator or operation has different meanings in different contexts. A developer might do this unintentionally when she uses a variable to mean one thing in one context and that same variable has a different meaning in another context. We even overload conversational operators. A number of years ago,

agile, MPD

A Working Definition of Agile

In a recent workshop, a participant asked me, “What does agile mean? How do you know if you are agile?” He wants to use kanban to see the flow of work through his group. Someone told him he needed to use iterations to be agile. (I had a little rant about this in What Does Agile Mean

agile, MPD

Podcast About Geographically Distributed Agile Teams

Lisette Sutherland posted a podcast we recorded about geographically distributed agile teams. See Organize Your Distributed Team over on the CollaborationSuperpowers site. We covered how you can think about your geographically distributed agile team: Why you want a distributed agile team (yes, there are some great reasons) How you might organize your team. Here are

MPD, program management

Small-World Networks Article Posted

I’m a new contributor to the TechBeacon site. I have an article up, called Small-world networks: a lightweight alternative to SAFe for scaling agile. Yes, it’s based on Agile and Lean Program Management: Scaling Collaboration Across the Organization. Hope you enjoy the article.

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