Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant
Expert in Managing Product Development
Cliff, an IT Director was concerned. One of the projects was a mess. It didn’t seem to matter how much or how little the team had for requirements. The team never seemed to release enough on time. Cliff had only been with the organization for four weeks. Yet, that team seemed to have more trouble …
Impediments will occur on any project; agile projects are no exception to risks. Agile succeeds because you are more likely to see the problem before it becomes a disaster. Two developers got the flu. Your tester has jury duty. The team can’t figure out what the design should be for a specific feature and it’s …
Continue reading “Three Tips for Removing Impediments the Agile Way”
If you’re the project manager for a geographically distributed team, you have likely encountered time zone challenges in running your meetings: 7 a.m. New York time is 8 p.m. in Singapore. Meetings at these times can exhaust everyone. Here’s a common scenario faced by managers of distributed teams: “We’ll have our next standup tomorrow, same …
Continue reading “Agile Alternatives for a Geographically Distributed Team”
For me, writing has four main parts: researching or deciding what to write and organizing it, writing, editing, and publishing. You might think of these steps as analysis and design, coding, testing, and release. I like to keep my writing chunks small so that my editing occurs soon after my writing. Small chunks also means …
I’ve lost count of the number of companies that don’t pay for training—or even provide tuition reimbursement. I also see too many organizations decide whom to hire based on technical skills. They don’t see the irony here. That means you’re responsible for your ongoing career development. And here’s the kicker: The more you learn and …
In more traditional projects, the Project Management Institute has a notion that you can “control” a project. I have never found that to be true. Of course, I never quite used a waterfall approach–I have used feature-driven approaches more often than I used a serial approach. But the idea that I could somehow control a …
I have a problem with the way many people talk about Scrum. They say “agile/Scrum,” as though they’re the same thing. No, no, no. Scrum is just one way to approach agile. It’s a terrific project management framework, especially for cross-functional teams that work on one project at a time. Scrum does not say anything …
Continue reading “Agile Does Not Equal Scrum: Know the Difference”
Many people like to start the new year with resolutions. I’m not one of them. I don’t like resolutions unless they are very small action steps I can take every day. Too often, people select resolutions such as “Lose twenty pounds this year.” That’s big. It doesn’t have small things I can do each day. …
I meet many people who are convinced there is One Way to Do Agile. Oh, and it’s the way they are using the agile practices. In their opinion, everyone should do agile their way. They believe that the kanban board is more valuable than a Scrum board—or the other way around. They believe that as …
How often do you reflect on your career or life? If you are like me, it’s easy to let the daily pushes and pulls distract you from reflection. I realized about a year ago I had not reflected purposefully about my work and my life in a couple of years. I reflect on consulting, individual …