I discussed how to calculate the Costs of Delay in the previous three posts, and then offered an example in Part 3. Notice that the example uses cycle time or how the team feels about the remaining time to think about the value in order to rank the work. (The links to all the posts […]
Ranking work, whether it’s for the backlog, a roadmap, or the portfolio, sometimes feels like throwing darts and hoping for the best. But especially if there’s too much work and a lot of WIP, we have a tool for clarifying that ranking—the Cost of Delay. It does require counting the number of people and easy
In Part 1, I explained the various Costs of Delays with this image: I explained how to calculate the salary costs in Part 1. Now, it’s time to calculate/assess Costs 2, 3, and 4 to decide on the most valuable work. (If you have Manage Your Project Portfolio, there’s an entire section about calculating and
If you’re like my clients (or me!), you have too much work to do. (I’m beginning to think “too much work” is the norm.) But how do you decide what to do first, second, and third? And never? I use Cost of Delay. (I’ve written about how to see the various Costs of Delay, especially
This is the August 2024 Pragmatic Manager Newsletter, from Johanna Rothman. The Unsubscribe link is at the bottom of this email. Problems. They’re always there, just waiting to pop up and say, “Surprise! Gotcha!” I don’t mind new problems, but the sneaky problems, the ones that reappear after I thought I fixed them? I really
During a sunset sail last week (see the image), I had a lovely conversation with a guy who said he did “accounting” type stuff. I asked him more, and it turns out he works for a three-letter acronym organization. No, I don’t know which one, even though I asked. He’s trying to organize a project
A senior leader, Jim, emailed me to clarify how to track a project’s progress. He’s a sales guy by training and is now leading a technology-based company. He’s confused. When he asks about progress, he feels as if everyone takes one step forward and two steps back, just as in the Project Kisses of Death
In a recent conversation, I realized that very smart and experienced project managers do not always know the difference between activity-based plans and deliverable-based plans. While activities might result in an interim or internal deliverable, activities do not result in a user-focused deliverable. The team might make some progress, but not progress users can see.
I’ve seen a number of posts recently saying that micromanagement isn’t as bad as we might think it is. Instead, micromanagement might actually help the person who’s the subject of that micromanagement. Sorry, no. Well, not sorry at all. Still No. Heck, NO. NO to all micromanagement. If any manager has micromanaged you, you know
I’m working on finishing a talk based on a recent Pragmatic Manager newsletter: Three Tips to Focus to Deliver Better Products Faster. I wrote that newsletter because I’d given several recent talks where the audience told me their “agile” teams could not collaborate. Those “teams” were component teams and they were not near each other.