estimation Archives - Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant

May 10, 2019May 10, 2019

Product Roles, Part 8: Summary: Collaborate at All Levels for the Product

Too many teams have overloaded Product Owners. The teams and PO have trouble connecting the organization’s strategy to what the teams deliver. The teams, PO, management, all think they need big planning. Too often, the POs don’t do small-enough replanning. They’re not living the principles of the agile manifesto. That insufficient collaboration means the PO …

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May 8, 2019May 10, 2019

Product Roles, Part 7: Collaboration Can Shorten Feedback Loops

I started this series with the question: If we have teams for all other aspects of an agile approach, why wouldn’t we want the product owner to also work as part of a team? Could a team reduce the feedback loop durations? In Phase Gate or Other Serial Approaches… When projects use a phase gate …

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April 26, 2019May 10, 2019

Product Roles, Part 5: Component Teams to Create Slices

As I’ve written these product role posts, a number of you have asked about how to use component teams. You might have a security team. Maybe a performance team. Regardless of my desire, you have component teams. You want a more agile approach to manage the interdependencies among the teams. You want to be able …

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April 11, 2019May 10, 2019

Product Roles, Part 3: Product or Feature Teams vs Project Teams

An agile approach requires a cross-functional team. That means that everyone on the team focuses on the same intent. That intent might be an entire product. It might be a feature set as part of a larger program. But, the team focuses as a team. That cross-functional team is a product team or a feature …

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February 25, 2019

Cost vs Value Measurements for Agile Approaches

Some of my clients have struggled with their project governance as they move to agile approaches. In the past, they’ve asked for estimates and costs—by requirement—and then tracked the variance for those estimates and costs. The governance people do not record assumptions. They only record estimates and actuals. They want to “measure” the project success …

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January 16, 2019February 4, 2019

Balance Innovation, Commitment, & Feedback Loops: Part 1: High Innovation Products

Many of my clients are trying to use short feedback loops in agile approaches. That desire bumps up against their management’s desires for longer commitments. This continuum might help them think through their needs for commitment and innovation. High Need for Product Innovation and Change The more need for product innovation and change, the shorter the feedback loops need …

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January 16, 2019February 6, 2019

Balance Innovation, Commitment, & Feedback Loops: Summary

Is it possible to balance the product innovation and feedback we need, with the commitment our management wants? Maybe. I tried to show my thinking for these questions in this series: When does it make sense to ask for or offer estimation and commitments? When does it make sense to ask for more feedback instead? …

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January 16, 2019February 4, 2019

Balance Innovation, Commitment, & Feedback Loops: Part 3: Low Innovation Products

What if you don’t need to experiment to reduce risks? You may have technical risks in terms of getting it “all” done. Especially for a given release date. In that case, you have a low need for product innovation. Your planning feedback loops can be longer. I’ve seen this occur in some of these circumstances: A …

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January 16, 2019February 4, 2019

Balance Innovation, Commitment, & Feedback Loops: Part 2: Moderate Innovation Products

What if you can plan for a few weeks or even a month-plus at a time? You don’t need the extremely short feedback cycles (hours to a day) because you’re not doing high innovation. You don’t need to change what the team does every few days. You can estimate and commit to maybe a month’s …

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December 11, 2018December 11, 2018

Help Managers Visualize Their Problems

I’ve been working with several managers at organizations large and small, who want to capitalize their software “earlier.” These managers have some strongly-held beliefs about the people: People are resources Resources can multitask on several projects at a time If “headquarters” does the difficult work, you can move the “grunt” work to lower wage areas …

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