Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant
Expert in Managing Product Development
Mark Kilby and I are almost done with the chapter on geographically dispersed teams with no (or very few) hours of overlap in our book about distributed agile teams. We are looking for any example of a team—agile or not—who successfully used/is using Follow the Sun. Follow the Sun is a great idea. The idea is …
Continue reading “Looking for Stories of Success with Follow-the-Sun”
I’ve been a part of geographically distributed teams since the mid-80s. I’ve taught and written about agile distributed teams for several years Now, I’m pair-writing a geographically distributed agile teams book with Mark Kilby. We’ve tweeted a little. We’ll be talking about our process at Agile 2018 in an experience report. We need your help. …
I had a great time recording with two of the guys from the Agile Uprising Podcast. See Create Your Successful Agile Project with Johanna Rothman. We discussed the book. I had an opportunity to rant and rave about many things: agile project managers (no, the term is not an oxymoron) a little about why the …
Continue reading “Listen to the Agile Uprising Podcast with Me”
I have a new column up on projectmanagement.com, 3 Questions to Ask Before Estimating an Agile Program. Often, management wants an estimate for the program. I suggest that before a program manager ask the teams to estimate, she learn the answers to these questions from management: How much would you like to invest in time, …
I’m writing a geographically distributed agile team book with Mark Kilby. We have a 30-minute timebox each morning to write. (We take time off for holidays, vacations, travel, etc.) Because we’re writing together, we first had to understand what we wanted to write in this book. We created a frame and a story map for …
Tom Cagley interviewed me for his Software Process and Measurement Cast (podcast) a couple of weeks ago and the podcast is live. See SPaMCAST 468 – Johanna Rothman, Create Your Successful Agile Project. We had a blast. I ranted and raved (as I am wont to do) and had a great time discussing some of …
Let me summarize what I’ve been talking about in these posts. The problem I’m seeing is that too many teams and organizations plan too much in too much detail too soon. Instead of architectural BDUF (Big Design Up Front), it’s project planning as BDUF. They expect one single person (a product manager or a product …
Continue reading “Alternatives for Agile and Lean Roadmapping: Part 7, Summary”
You’ve started thinking in feature sets. Maybe you’ve experimented with rolling wave plans inside one quarter, so you can change and replan as you need to support your project or program. You’ve discussed flow-based roadmapping as a way to create MVPs and MVEs, release smaller value more often so you can make better decisions. You …
Continue reading “Alternatives for Agile and Lean Roadmapping: Part 6, Managers Want Commitments”
If you need to plan more often than once a quarter, how do you know how to replan? Instead of incurring the time and cost when you bring everyone together, consider the Product Value Team. (In past writing and presentations, I’ve called this the Product Owner Value Team. I am trying to change my term …
Continue reading “Alternatives for Agile and Lean Roadmapping: Part 5, the Product Value Team”
One of my clients was trying—valiantly—to make their quarterly planning sessions work. They prepared, getting the big hotel room. They had plenty of supplies. The planning even went well. However, within two weeks, their plan had no relation to reality. That meant that for the next ten weeks, the product owners were “on their own.” …