Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant
Expert in Managing Product Development
I just finished a series for my Pragmatic Manager newsletter about Agile Transformation Secrets: Part 1: Manage for Change Part 2: Emphasize Collaboration Part 3: Principles Over Practices I wrote this series because I find that many people get a little confused about an agile transformation. They think an agile approach will work because they …
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Many people draw distinctions between people who do management-kind of work and people who do “individual contributor” kind of work. I’ve been asking if they mean individual work or team member work. Sometimes, they do mean individual work. More often, they mean team member. Our culture shapes our language. (And, our language shapes our culture.) …
As I work with people to use agile approaches, I see many organizational constraints. I’ve been trying to find a visualization for what I see. I don’t know if I’ve got it yet, but here is my sum-of-the-parts image. The organization’s culture drives decisions (or not!) about the strategy. Strategy, with any luck, creates clarity …
Agile transformations are tough. That’s because wherever you start, the agile transformation creates culture clashes. Often, teams start with agile approaches. Teams discover the agile approach and practices that work for that team. Then, as the team gains experience, they refine their approach and practices. That’s the external part of what we see in an agile transformation. …
Continue reading “The Manager’s Role in an Agile Transformation”
Are you looking to help support your team, management, or organization’s agile adoption? Do you feel as if you are part of the formal or informal team leading your agile transformation? You need what Gil Broza and I teach and facilitate at the Influential Agile Leader Workshop. Early registration ends May 1, less than two weeks …
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Mark Kilby and I have finished the first four chapters of From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams: Collaborate to Deliver. We thought we had five finished chapters. Then we realized how much more work we had, to move from Google docs to Markdown. Sigh. We have four finished chapters 🙂 And, we know how to collaborate in …
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Part of what makes an agile transformation difficult is the cultural change required. That’s what makes an agile transformation a journey. A client said to me, “I want the agile. The agile is good stuff: faster delivery of smaller stuff that we can get revenue for. I want it now. How fast can I get …
Continue reading “Agile Transformation is a Journey, Part 6”
I’ve been thinking more about possible measurements in an agile transformation journey. The first Possible Measurements post focuses on product throughput measurements. This post will focus on measurements you might see when the culture changes with an agile transformation. Again, do start with your why. Without knowing why you want to use agile approaches throughout the organization, …
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“What should I measure???” is one of the questions I see when I work with people going through an agile transformation. Too often, managers measure people as individuals. (Traditional measurements focus on resource efficiency instead of flow efficiency.) Resource efficiency measures don’t measure what the organization delivers or what prevents the organization from delivering. This …
Continue reading “Agile Transformation: Possible Organizational Measurements, Part 4”
If you read my scaling agile series, you can see that becoming an agile organization requires seeing your organization as a system with a culture. You can start with teams, move to programs and the product part of the organization. If you don’t also address the cultural problems of rewards, you won’t continue with your …
Continue reading “Agile Transformation: See Your System and Culture, Part 3”