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Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant

Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant

Expert in Managing Product Development

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Posted on January 21, 2015December 14, 2015

We Need Planning; Do We Need Estimation?

As I write the program management book, I am struck by how difficult it is to estimate large chunks of work. In Predicting the Unpredictable and Manage It!, I recommend several approaches to estimation, each of which include showing that there is no one absolute date for a project or a program. What can you do? …

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Posted on August 12, 2014December 3, 2014

Agile Bootcamp Talk Posted on Slideshare

I posted my slides for my Agile 2014 talk, Agile Projects, Program & Portfolio Management: No Air Quotes Required on Slideshare. It’s a bootcamp talk, so the majority of the talk is making sure that people understand the basics about projects. Walk before you run. That part. However, you can take projects and “scale” them …

Continue reading “Agile Bootcamp Talk Posted on Slideshare”

Posted on October 24, 2013December 3, 2014

Fixing—or Not—Healthcare Dot Gov

Did you see Dwayne Phillips’ post today, Adding People to a Late Project? Dwayne says: Adding people to a late project only makes it later. We have known this for decades. Especially in the article he refers to, it seems as if there might be no end to the number of people added. Did anyone …

Continue reading “Fixing—or Not—Healthcare Dot Gov”

Posted on November 8, 2011December 12, 2014

Estimating the Unknown: Dates or Budgets, Part 5

So where does all of this get us with budgets and dates? In  many ways, estimating project budgets or dates for agile projects turns out to be irrelevant. If you have a ranked backlog, and you finish features, you can always stop the project if you hit a particular date or cost. It does matter …

Continue reading “Estimating the Unknown: Dates or Budgets, Part 5”

Posted on November 7, 2011December 3, 2014

Estimating the Unknown: Dates or Budgets, Part 4

In Part 3, you had some knowledge of the team’s velocity. This is the option of when you do not have knowledge of the team’s velocity, because this team has not worked together before, or has not worked on a project like this before. You are all coming in blind. Your Zeroth Best Bet: Wait …

Continue reading “Estimating the Unknown: Dates or Budgets, Part 4”

Posted on November 4, 2011December 3, 2014

Estimating the Unknown: Projects or Budgets, Part 3

You have options for estimation, once you have met the preconditions. If you don’t have the feature set in a ranked order, you are in trouble. That’s because if you use any lifecycle other than an agile lifecycle, the feature order matters to your estimates, and the team will discuss the feature order in addition …

Continue reading “Estimating the Unknown: Projects or Budgets, Part 3”

Posted on November 3, 2011December 3, 2014

Estimating the Unknown: Projects or Budgets, Part 2

So now that you know why it’s so difficult to estimate what do you do when someone asks you for an estimate? Preconditions for Estimation First, you ask a question back: “What’s most important to you? If it’s 3 weeks before the end of the project, and we haven’t finished all the features and we …

Continue reading “Estimating the Unknown: Projects or Budgets, Part 2”

Posted on November 1, 2011December 3, 2014

Estimating the Unknown: Dates or Budgets, Part 1

Almost every manager I know wants to know when a project will be done. Some managers decree when a project will be done. Some managers think they can decree both the date and the feature set. There is one other tiny small subset, those managers who ask, “When can you finish this set of ranked …

Continue reading “Estimating the Unknown: Dates or Budgets, Part 1”

Posted on March 16, 2011June 1, 2015

Similarities and Differences in Project Management

I’m in Las Vegas waiting to get on a plan to Los Angeles to go to New Zealand for SDC. I led a workshop yesterday for real estate project managers about how to define success and manage some of the early-in-the-project risks. We discussed issues such as the Hudson Bay start, context-free questions, release criteria, …

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Posted on October 8, 2008December 19, 2014

Resorts Aren't Necessary for Strategic Planning

I’m sure you’ve read of the AIG scandal by now. (Here is the Fox News story and here is the CNN story.)  Shame is too small a word for those executives. I would love to know where their entitlement comes from. I’d squish it like a bug. Maybe they went to the resort to do …

Continue reading “Resorts Aren't Necessary for Strategic Planning”

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