I’ve been speaking with several possible clients. They’re having trouble with Scrum. The managers don’t believe the teams need product owners, so the teams don’t have POs. The managers think a Scrum Master can support at least four teams. The teams start a lot and finish very little. The teams think they have too many […]
When you’re starting off as a consultant, you might take the first one or two engagements a client offers. However, at some point, you’ll see an engagement that is wrong. It’s wrong for the client. It’s wrong for you. No one will see the results either of you wants. What should you do? I see
Every so often, someone asks me, “How do you write so much?” I don’t feel as if I write that much. I have meeting-filled days, just as you do. However, I suspect there’s something different about my days: I write for 15 minutes every day. Sometimes, I write longer, but I write for 15 minutes
Have you ever noticed that other people want you to do “more” work? The work has risk—if you say yes to this work, you’ll put every other deliverable at risk. What do you say? You can address this request with a simple sentence: No. That’s it. No. It’s a complete sentence. I bet you feel
I delivered a Modern Management Made Easy talk and ranted about 100% utilization. One of the questions in the chat was: “Don’t consultants want 100% utilization? If you’re not working, you’re not billing.” Here’s how consultants create utilization-based billing: By the hour. Even worse, in 15-minute increments. Time and materials. I don’t do that. Why
I had a terrific conversation with the two Jeffs at the Agile Wire. See Modern Management Made Easy with Johanna Rothman for our recording. We touched on many topics in the Modern Management Made Easy books: The system of work How fast can managers learn? How managers can facilitate the work of others and much
I had a great time on the Agile Coffee podcast, 75. Managing with Coffee. We had a great time and a wide-ranging conversation. We spoke about a variety of issues that managers, teams, and people encounter, such as: Culture and how that plays out at all levels How the reward system might offer perverse incentives
Back in January 2020, I led a Hudson Bay Start to create/build a consulting practice. I’m happy to say it was a success. Not because everyone became a consultant. However, the people who chose to consult found their ways to succeed. And, even more importantly, some people decided not to consult yet. Those folks continue
Create Your Peer Management Team for Fun and Profit (and to Solve Problems) Do you wonder how to get more done in your organization? Your teams are working pretty well, delivering at a reasonable pace. Yet, you have the nagging feeling you could get more done. You can. The secret is management teams, not just
The original signatories of the Manifesto for Agile Software Development wanted to solve these specific problems: How can we: Bring more adaptability to software development? Stop “plan the work and work the plan” thinking? Release something of value earlier? Especially since teams now had these levers, from the iterative and incremental approaches: Prototype something for