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How to Become an Agile Learner

Harvard Business

Learning agility — the skill of learning from experiences so you can succeed in new situations — is a much sought-after skill to create a flexible, mobile, and resilient workforce. For example, a leader with learning agility can successfully transfer their talents across different parts of an organization.

Agile 81
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Tired of Fake Agility? Choose When to Experiment and When to Deliver

Johanna Rothman

I have a new book: Project Lifecycles: How to Reduce Risks, Release Successful Products, and Increase Agility. I wrote it because I'm concerned about what I see in too many supposedly agile teams: Crazy-long backlogs and roadmaps. A focus on a “standard” agile approach, regardless of how much agility is in that approach.

Agile 88
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How Agile Managers Use Uncertainty to Create Better Decisions Faster

Johanna Rothman

Does that sound like an agile team to you? However, managers don't create features as agile teams do. Agile teams don't assume they make a final product the first time out. Agile teams don't assume they make a final product the first time out. How can managers work as agile teams do, so they can change direction?

Agile 98
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It’s Time to End the Battle Between Waterfall and Agile

Harvard Business

Too many project leaders think rigidly about Waterfall and Agile project management methodologies and believe that they need to choose between the two. But many projects — especially those with diverse stakeholder needs and complex structures — benefit from a hybrid approach that combines aspects of Waterfall and Agile.

Agile 95
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Agile Approaches Offer Strategic Advantage; Agile Tools are Tactics, Part 1

Johanna Rothman

They think that the agile tools they use, such as boards, offer a strategic advantage. However, they adopt or “install” an agile framework or process without customization. Instead, agile organizations need flexibility, not rigidity. Commodity businesses don't need agility for product development.

Agile 118
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Agile Approaches Offer Strategic Advantage; Agile Tools are Tactics, Part 2

Johanna Rothman

So when does it make sense to customize your agile approach to gain a strategic advantage? They want an agile approach, so they started with Scrum. We don't think we need to be “religious” about our agile approach as long as we get the benefit. Then, they Built their agile approach based on their needs.

Agile 105
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Agile Approaches Offer Strategic Advantage; Agile Tools are Tactics, Part 3

Johanna Rothman

In Part 1 and 2 of this series, I wrote about how an agile approach might offer strategic benefits. And because an agile approach changes your culture, I said the agile approach was part of your strategy. So let's ask this question: Can any tool—agile or otherwise—offer you a strategic advantage? (I

Agile 105