Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant
Expert in Managing Product Development
Steve, a software development manager, thought John was a “10x” developer. He explained that John could: Coded faster than anyone else. Write and release full applications over a weekend. “Mind-meld” with the users. No one else in Steve’s group could do this. Was I willing to support and coach the other people in Steve’s group …
Continue reading “Why Very Few (If Any) People Are “10x” Developers—Or Managers”
One of my reviewers for the Modern Management Made Easy books asked a fascinating question: I’ve never seen this many women in management or in senior leadership positions. Do these stories reflect your experience? Yes, the stories reflect my experience. Let me offer a little history. My History, Not Anyone Else’s History I started to …
A Scrum Master asked, “How can I engage my team during a remote retrospective? People tell me things they think we could change. Then, we get into the retro and I know people are looking at their phones, not engaged. Got ideas?” I do. These ideas refer to safety. That’s because teams need safety for …
Continue reading “Three Ideas to Create Safety in Remote Retrospectives”
Part 1 was mostly about unintentional plagiarism. Part 2 was about copyright and when to reference other people’s work. Now, you’re pretty sure someone has used your words. You’re not talking about someone scraping your blog for your posts. You really mean Person A has stolen your words and passed those words off as Person …
Continue reading “What Writers Can Do About Intended Plagiarism, Part 3”
Many of us writers integrate other people’s ideas. Or, we use those ideas as inspiration for our writing. Can we avoid plagiarism and still acknowledge other people’s work the right way? And, if you can, get “credit” for your “thought leadership?” There’s a lot there to unpack. Let’s start with copyright. Start with Your Copyright As …
Continue reading “How to Use Other People’s Words and Not Plagiarize, Part 2”
I spoke with another writer, Sam, earlier this week. He’s pretty sure a colleague, John, is plagiarizing his blog posts. Not in writing, but in conversation. Yes, John is using Sam’s original words and phrases and passing those words off as John’s ideas. In videos, podcasts, all kinds of “thought leader” work. This happens. All …
Continue reading “What Writers Can Do About Informal Plagiarism, Part 1”
What risks does your project have? Do you need feedback loops so you can: Cancel the project at any time (to manage schedule and cost risks. Assess technical risks so you can rework the architecture or design to manage feature set risks. Manage what you release to customers so you can manage defect, feature set, …
Continue reading “What Lifecycle or Agile Approach Fits Your Context? Part 7, Lifecycle Summary”
The original signatories of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development wanted to solve these specific problems: How can we: Bring more adaptability to software development? Stop “plan the work and work the plan” thinking? Release something of value earlier? Especially since teams now had these levers, from the iterative and incremental approaches: Prototype something for …
I discussed the origins of the agile approaches in Part 5. In this post, I’ll discuss how you can create an agile approach that fits your context. Why should you create your own agile approach? Because your context is unique to you, your team, project, product, and culture. You deserve an agile approach that helps …
Which levers does your team need to manage risk in your project? Do you need to cancel the project if you can’t finish a phase? You might not have the time. You might not have the ability to do this project. That’s the point of Serial lifecycles in Part 1. Maybe you need feedback from …