I meet many managers in the course of my work, and they all share a common complaint: They have too much work to do. I ask how they know there’s too much work to do, and they look at me as if I’ve sprouted another head or two. “My staff and I are spread too […]
© 2005 Johanna Rothman. This column was originally pubished on Stickyminds.com Summary: Resumes only tell a portion of a candidate’s story just like caller ID doesn’t always reveal the caller’s complete identity. Screening candidates over the phone can help extract more of the person’s story if you ask the right questions. In this week’s column,
© 2005 Johanna Rothman. This column was originally published on Stickyminds.com Partway through an assessment, the senior manager asked me, “How long should the testing take?” The answer to the senior manager’s question is, “It depends.” If you do test-driven development, there is rarely more than an iteration’s worth of at-the-end testing. When I coach
© 2005 Johanna Rothman. This article was originally published on Computerworld.com There’s some good news in this year’s salary survey. Salaries are up (a little), bonuses are up (a little) and the effects of layoffs, hiring freezes and outsourcing are all down — a little. And training budgets look as if they may be coming
I perform project and process assessments as part of my consulting work. During one assessment, a senior manager took me aside, and said, “I want you to tell me what you think of our testers.” “All of them?” “Yup.” “Ok, why?” “Well, the developers meet all their milestones, but the testers don’t meet any.” Hmm.
© 2005 Johanna Rothman. Some project managers considering moving to iterative, incremental, or agile lifecycles, stumble when it comes time to move to rolling wave planning. They aren’t sure how to start it, how to continue it, or how to see where the project is without using a more traditional Gantt chart and planning the
© 2005 Johanna Rothman. Sometimes there’s no time to use the usual hiring process. When you’re in a crunch, you need new thinking. Imagine this scenario: you’ve just discovered there’s a high-risk/high-return project. It won’t take long, but it will take people you don’t have right now. Is there a way to hire people to
© 2005 Johanna Rothman. Defining the people who fit your projects You’ve probably heard the adage, “Hire for attitude, train for skills.” There’s a good reason to do so. Hiring for attitude means that you won’t have to fire people who don’t fit into your culture. But that still isn’t easy. Finding people who can
The last few times I’ve taught project management, I’ve explained that multi-project context switching wastes time. The project managers agree with me. But then they ask the question, “How do I explain this to my management? They refuse to believe me.” Managers, especially senior managers, don’t believe context switching wastes time because all they do
© 2005 Johanna Rothman. So you’re managing people and projects around the world. It’s not easy, and it seems to be the norm these days. I’ve worked with global projects for the past 15 years, and here are three of my tips to making them successful. Define Clear, System-Based Milestones One of the biggest problems