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, project management

Creating a Healthy Project Culture

Glen Alleman seems to have nailed it, with Alert – Was Poor PM the Root Cause of ACA Difficulties? Among the many problems: No overall program manager No way for stakeholders to know what Done looks like (no release criteria) No replanning I’m a huge fan of rolling wave planning.  (Read Starting with Rolling Wave

Hiring Geeks That Fit, HTP

Terrific Review of Hiring Geeks That Fit

Did you see Bernice Ruhland’s review of Hiring Geeks That Fit? She likes the book. Here’s specifically what she likes: In particular I like the idea of providing a recruitment focus to each person on the interview team. Too many times when we recruit we send in several people to interview and they all ask

MPD

Many Slideshares for Your Reading Pleasure

I have posted several slideshares for your reading pleasure. You won’t get the pleasure of my humor, eye rolling and jokes. Nope, for that you would have had to hear me speak. In September, I spoke at AgileSoCal, and had an interactive talk, Agile Teams and Collaboration: What’s New About Agile? I have a small

MPD, project management

Why Do We Estimate, Anyway?

I’ve been thinking about estimation these days. After the healthcare.gov site fiasco, and all the schedule games–many of which are estimation problems, I thought about why we estimate. The larger the effort, the more we need to estimate. And, the more your estimate will be wrong. The more we estimate, the more we have schedule

HTP

Hiring Geeks That Fit is Available in Print!

I’ve been traveling and crazy-busy. Drum roll, please: Hiring Geeks That Fit is available in print. For you electronic buyers, it’s available in many online bookstores, Amazon, of course, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. All the links are on my page, Hiring Geeks That Fit. Barnes & Noble even has it in print, also!

MPD, project management

Fixing—or Not—Healthcare Dot Gov

Did you see Dwayne Phillips’ post today, Adding People to a Late Project? Dwayne says: Adding people to a late project only makes it later. We have known this for decades. Especially in the article he refers to, it seems as if there might be no end to the number of people added. Did anyone

newsletter

Small Steps, Frequent Deliverables Work

Small Steps, Frequent Deliverables Work My beta reviewers just completed their beta comments for Manage Your Job Search. I’m quite excited! Now, I have to integrate their comments into the text. This is a big part of my book project. I need to review every person’s comments, and integrate the comments, one at a time,

Scroll to Top