© 2002 Johanna Rothman. This article was originally publishedby Cutter, February 2002. You’ve decided that now is a good time to improve everyone’s skills with a little training. Maybe you’re planning some changes, or maybe you’re using training as a technique to avoid having to hire more people, and to help retain your best people. […]
© 2002 Johanna Rothman. This article was originally published on Stickyminds.com, January 2002, as a companion piece to “Release Criteria: Is this Software Done?” Summary: How do you know when software is ready to release? This article discusses one piece of knowing when the software is ready to release–knowing what a successful release would look
©2002 Johanna Rothman Who’s working hard in your organization? One senior manager, Cyril, noted the cars in the parking lot on the weekend, as his measure of who was truly committed to the project. Cyril also noticed when people arrived at work and when they left. Cyril thought that measuring his staff’s office-time would help
©2002 Johanna Rothman You’re a project manager who’s just been assigned the biggest project of your life. You’ve planned the project work with your project team. You’ve gathered the project plan and the project schedule, for your upcoming meeting with the Operations Committee, OC, to explain how you’re going to manage the project and when
© 2002 Johanna Rothman. This article was originally published in Software Development, October 2002. When hiring personnel, subject domain expertise, industry experience and software skills, combined with corporate culture simpatico, make for a well-rounded worker. by Johanna Rothman Jim, a hiring manager in search of a developer, is talking to Jane, a human resources recruiter:
by Johanna Rothman. This article was originally publised in Software DevelopmentMagazine, November 2001. Despite the horror stories, there are ways to treat people with respect while ending their employment. The “new economy” has crashed, and it’s layoff time in the software industry. Your company is having financial trouble, and laying people off is the only alternative.
by Johanna Rothman. Originally published in Cutter’s Business-IT Alignment E-Mail Advisor, October 17, 2001. Too many projects? Not sure which projects are most important? Welcome to project portfolio management. A client, Tim, is having trouble with his portfolio management. Senior management is organizing next year’s budget and hiring plan. They want more projects in the
© 2001 Esther Derby and Johanna Rothman. This article was originally published in Cutter IT Journal, October 2001. Suppose you are a manager in a software development organization that isn’t achieving the financial results that senior management wants. The good news is that your management understands that one way to reduce costs is to increase effectiveness of
© 2001 Johanna Rothman. This article was originally published in STQE, September/October 2001 issue, as the Last Word column. One of my colleagues recently took a job as a software quality assurance manager at a commercial software company. Jill had always been determined to improve the product development process wherever she’d worked, and seeing “process
by Johanna Rothman. This article was originally published in Software Development, September 2001. We all have problems at work, sometimes more than we can easily handle. Managers tend to encounter more sticky situations because of the nature of our job. And not only do we have our own problems—others often ask us to solve theirs, as