Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant
Expert in Managing Product Development
Most of my clients struggle with their agile transformation. The teams love agile approaches because they can work on their release frequency and technical excellence. The senior managers love the agile promise because they can see how agile approaches help the teams release a more constant flow of value. They can see the benefits of …
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 …
Continue reading “Agile Transformation Secrets Series Posted”
I’ve met a number of agile coaches recently. They tell me they’re hired as Scrum coaches or as Scrum Masters. They see their job as “better Scrum.” It would be lovely if that was their one and only job. However, many of these coaches work in organizations just starting a cultural transformation. Even though the …
Several recent clients want help with these problems: Estimation isn’t accurate. Because the estimation isn’t accurate, management can’t predict when they can release anything. Managers can’t manage the capitalization (a way to move from expensing software to capitalizing it). Teams can’t seem to ever deliver a finished feature. The work in progress everywhere is quite large. …
Continue reading “Divide and Conquer Creates Need for Management Control”
I’m catching up on my podcasts and just listened to Seth Godin’s Akimbo episode about honest signals. (Do listen.) It’s about the signals we send that are honest or dishonest and why we might choose one, the other, or both. I started to think about the management signals we send, especially in an agile transformation. …
Ryan Ripley, host of Agile for Humans, interviewed Gil Broza and me in AFH 102: The Influential Agile Leader. Oh, we had fun! We spoke about the workshop I lead with Gil, the Influential Agile Leader. We also spoke about the conversation Gil and I will lead this coming Wednesday, Oct 17, noon Eastern. If …
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I’ve been thinking about my clients who’ve had success moving from a project-based/resource-efficiency organization to a product-based/flow efficiency organization. They had these things in common: A senior person made it safe for the managers to create experiments. They created very small experiments (either managers or teams, or together). The senior manager often asked a question …
Continue reading “Starting a Product Organization Transformation, Part 6”
Cliff, an IT Director was concerned. One of the projects was a mess. It didn’t seem to matter how much or how little the team had for requirements. The team never seemed to release enough on time. Cliff had only been with the organization for four weeks. Yet, that team seemed to have more trouble …
How do we move from a project-based organization towards a product organization? There are at least two systems of work we need to change: The management system and the culture of management How the teams work and their team culture. I’m not sure it’s that simple to explain. There might be more systems I don’t …
Continue reading “Possible Organization Changes for a Product Approach, Part 5”
How could we organize if we want flow efficiency? We would reward managers by their span of service instead of control, part 3, stop organizing by function, and move to something that looks like a product-based organization? My transforming idea for this question was to think about the organization as legacy code. We understand how to …
Continue reading “Possible Changes for a Product Approach, Part 4”