I’ve been working with several management teams recently. They realize they need to change how they are organized in order to really make the agile teams even more productive. For example, what good is a functional manager? If functional managers don’t need to assign tasks and check on how the work is going (the team […]
I finally heard about the almost-complete financial numbers from the Agile 2009 conference. The conference is supposed to generate enough monies for the Agile Alliance to fund research, other conferences, guest speakers, and a whole bunch of other initiatives that are on the site. I was happy, because early indications are that we did. No,
I receive a number of please-link-to-me requests each week. Some are for products, some are for random sites. I received one a couple of weeks ago and decided not to respond because I wasn’t going to accept the link request. I received another request, this time with a please respond with an “aye or nay”.
“Hey, Dan, it’s time for us to move to agile,” explained Tristan, a project manager. “Tristan, you’ve been singing that tune for a while,” replied Dan, a member of the PMO. “Well, now I have data that I think you can use with the rest of the PMO and with our senior managers. Look at
Dave and Bob have great comments on my post, Might Three Backlogs Be Better Than One?. Dave is describing situations where management is making reasonable decisions, not incurring management debt, and by extension, technical debt. Bob and I have experience with significant management debt. (Take a look at Musings About Management Debt for more information
I’ve been working with several clients on their transition to agile approaches to their projects. They all have a common state: Many features to implement Huge technical debt Many defects They want to get a handle on all the work they have to do. I suggested they consider three backlogs, making sure that for a
One of the most important things to do in an interview is to build rapport. I led a session last week at AYE, focused on conversations (not specifically interviews). One of the more memorable things I said is that you need to be personal but not intimate. A participant asked, “What is personal but not
I’ve been reviewing job descriptions from clients that are a laundry list of tools. Or, that ask for “significant experience” with a particular technology. No, no, no. People are not tools. They are human beings who have specific qualities, preferences, and technical and non-technical skills. When you think about those personal qualities, think about these
Rothman Consulting Group, Inc. Pragmatic Manager, Vol. 6#3, You Can’t Do All the Work. Now What? October 21 , 2009 In This Issue: You Can’t Do All the Work. Now What? Manage Your Project Portfolio Only 6 Spots Left at AYE You Can’t Do All the Work. Now What? In the last Pragmatic Manager newsletter,
I’m not a fan of ROI (Return on Investment) measures for software, except in the case where you have waste. Several of my clients have huge technical debt which creates waste for the development staff (not just developers, anyone involved with the development of the product). When you’re dealing with waste, user stories just might