This is the August 2024 Pragmatic Manager Newsletter, from Johanna Rothman. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. Problems. They’re always there, just waiting to pop up and say, “Surprise! Gotcha!” I don’t mind new problems, but the sneaky problems, the ones that reappear after I thought I fixed them? I really […]
This is the July 2024 Pragmatic Manager Newsletter, from Johanna Rothman. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. Years ago, as a director, my VP, Fred, told me there was no money for raises. I looked at him and asked, “Really? No raise money? Even though all the senior managers just went for
This is the June 2024 Pragmatic Manager Newsletter, from Johanna Rothman. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. A newsletter reader asked me this question: Are there common reasons that projects fail? There are. These reasons aren’t just for product development projects, but for any effort that has some risk and requires
When Mark, my husband, and I moved into this house a decade ago, we faced the problem many other people face: what to keep and what to toss (or recycle, etc.). Mark had a particularly difficult time with the kitchen drawer that held all the old baby dishes and utensils. I wanted to toss everything
Jenny, a product leader, glared at her supposed product backlog. She’d just transferred to this product and now she knew why the teams weren’t making progress. This backlog was more like her overstuffed sports closet. That closet had tennis rackets, a bat, and her two pairs of skis—all sports, but not for any one specific
Susan, an experienced senior leader, wondered what to do. Her company’s market was on a roller coaster. Increased revenue meant a lot more customers, who clamored for more features. So, the product leaders pressured the teams to deliver faster. But she’d been in a roller coaster situation before. After two years of stupendous growth, revenue leveled off in just one
Susan, a new-to-the-company program manager, could not understand why Product A was so late. The teams used a well-known agile approach. They weren’t working on anything else except for production support. Yet, even though the teams worked hard, not one team could meet any of their deadlines. The teams were unhappy with their progress. They
I continue to work with people who have trouble with their agile approach. They tell me their relative estimation isn’t working for them. They continue to roll over items, from sprint to sprint. They’ve rolled over some items for six months or longer. The people feel demoralized. And the Scrum Masters or agile project managers
Several of my clients are trying to do the impossible right now—plan their portfolio for an entire year. Or plan their product backlogs for eighteen months or longer. When I ask them how well that’s worked for them in the past, they often say, “Our planning works great. Our execution? Not so well.” That’s my
Susan, a senior leader, wants faster throughput. She can see people working hard. Yet, all the projects seem to take much longer than anyone expects. They’re doing a lot of the right things. No team is multitasking—the teams work on one project at a time. And the teams manage their inside-the-team WIP (Work in Progress).