Johanna Rothman, Management Consultant
Expert in Managing Product Development
Many of my clients feel stuck with their component teams. They feel they must implement across the architecture, not through it. That’s because the people are organized in component teams. As the organization grows, so does the number of component teams. The more component teams they have, the more complexity they create in the teams, in …
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I keep encountering managers and consultants who want to make work “fun” for people. As a goal, “fun” is a bunch of hooey. Before I was a consultant, I held various Director-level positions at local companies. Each organization had mandatory fun days. In one organization, we played softball. Yes, everyone—especially the managers—had to play softball …
When Esther and I wrote Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management, we didn’t really think one-on-ones were a secret. But, managers weren’t conducting the one-on-ones regularly. The managers canceled for other “higher priority” meetings. The first modern management book is about how managers manage themselves. Part of that management is how and when they …
I’m in the midst of collecting the management myths into three books. The series is currently titled “Make Modern Management Easy”. The first book is Practical Ways to Manage Yourself. I was thinking of starting with managing the organization issues. The way organization attempt to “manage performance” and do/do not manage the project portfolio has …
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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 …
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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. …
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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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