Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant
Expert in Managing Product Development
Create Successful Schedules: Three Tips to Rolling Wave Planning Do you ever feel under pressure to finish “all” of whatever this project is? And, the project might unfold in various ways, so you can’t quite plan “all” of it? Enter rolling-wave planning. You don’t have to know everything. You only have to know where you …
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Three Secrets to Creating Your Focus Time I don’t like multitasking at all. And, I have many projects in progress. How is it possible to jump from one project to another—and not forget where I am? My secret is focus time—small periods of time where I focus-and-finish work. Secret 1: Write down the work you …
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Want a Successful Agile Transformation? Invite Managers Many people start their agile transformation with teams. That’s great, and it’s not enough to build and maintain an agile transformation—to change the culture. Too often, your agile approaches stall or create dysfunctions for the people and teams. If you want a successful agile transformation, invite the managers. …
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How Do You Tell Your Agile Story? An agile transformation is a change, a big cultural change. Agile approaches change us as individuals, our teams, and our organizations. That means we can tell stories and help other people see what we learned. We’ve been telling each other stories—around the campfire, across the table, from the …
Build Your Agile Tribe One of the reasons I use agile approaches is because they work. Not all of them, all the time. I find that I have to adapt my agile approach to the current context: the organization and its culture, the people, and the product(s) in development. Some people prefer to use a …
See Your Agile Delivery Traps Does your team deliver what they want, when they want to? Maybe your team delivers, but depends on another team to deploy. Many teams have trouble delivering the value they so carefully create. Here are three delivery traps I’ve seen in agile teams: The team doesn’t have “done” criteria. The …
See Your Agile Estimation Traps Agile estimation. Nothing seems to bring more fervor to an argument than by pairing the words “agile” and “estimate.” Well, controversy doesn’t bother me. Here are three estimation traps I’ve seen in agile teams: An expert signs up for their own stories, thinking it will help the team’s throughput. Your …
See Your Agile Measurement Traps In honor of my new book, Create Your Successful Agile Project: Collaborate, Measure, Estimate, Deliver, this is the second in a series of four trap emails, the measurement trap. Here are three common measurement traps: You/your management thinks velocity is a target or a measure of progress. Someone (often a …
See Your Agile Collaboration Traps In honor of the impending Create Your Successful Agile Project book release, I decided to send you a four-part series about agile traps. Yes, one for each piece of the subtitle. This one is the collaboration trap. Here are three common collaboration traps: Your team is a component team. (The …
The Value of Planning I like my plans. I have several levels of plans: a year or so specifically for books and workshops, a 6-month roadmap so I stay on track or change my track, a one-month week-by-week proposed roadmap, and a weekly plan. I use a kanban board to manage my weekly plans. (See …