Johanna Rothman

JANUARY 31, 2024

In Effective Agility Requires Cultural Changes: Part 1 , I said that real agile approaches require cultural change to focus on flow efficiency, where we focus on watching the work, not the people. If you and your team have been practicing real agility, you might say these ideas barely show any agility at all.

Agile 70

Agile Metrics Efficiency Culture 70

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 6, 2024

In Effective Agility Requires Cultural Changes: Part 1 , I said that real agile approaches require cultural change to focus on flow efficiency , where we watch the flow of the work , not the people doing tasks. What about those cultural changes? This is not an agile approach. Every effort has risks.

Agile 81

Agile Culture Efficiency Metrics 81

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 24, 2023

For years, we've used several metaphors to describe software product development: People-based metaphors, such as: Man-weeks for all the humans working on a project or a product. See Why Shared Services “Teams” Don’t Work with Agility. Demo inside the organization. See People are NOT FTEs.) Worse, the less effective we are.

Construction 78

Construction Resources Productivity Development 78

Johanna Rothman

FEBRUARY 12, 2019

Nor do the teams demo on a regular basis. The teams miss the feedback loops so critical for an agile approach. Their agile transformation falls apart. The developers and testers and anyone else on the product or feature teams. Prevent Agile Projects that Look Like Waterfall. Rethink Your Definition of Customer.

Agile 58

Agile Productivity Retail Management 58

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 30, 2020

Successful software product development is about how well the team learns together. See Agile Program Measurements to Visualize and Track Progress and Measure Cycle Time for my suggestions of what to measure. I have more ideas and a more in-depth discussion in Create Your Successful Agile Project.).

Management 52

Management Agile Metrics Video 52

Johanna Rothman

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

In Part 1 , I suggested that when we organize by function, the recognition and rewards might prevent a successful agile transformation. Not only does each team have all the skills and capabilities it needs, but the product line has all the skills and capabilities it needs to manage the culture. Except, the new development was delayed.

Productivity 65

Productivity Agile Efficiency Management 65

Johanna Rothman

JUNE 24, 2021

He thought agile approaches would work to “meet” and “enforce” deadlines. In addition, each component team worked on any number of products, both development and support, for any given iteration. However, software product development is not construction. Over months, they stopped demoing anything.

Agile 85

Agile Meeting Software Government 85

Johanna Rothman

JULY 29, 2021

The teams want to use an agile approach so they can incorporate learning. The managers might even think this is roadmap reflects an agile approach. There's nothing about this roadmap that's agile. You can decide if you need an agile approach. Demo on a regular cadence. The managers want rigid roadmaps.

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Agile Productivity Data Management 143

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 8, 2020

Back in Part 1 , I wrote about how stage-gate approaches were as agile as we could use at the time. We had one delivery, so our agility was about canceling the project if we couldn't finish it. Barry Boehm developed the spiral model. We develop test plans early. Once our customers saw demos, they wanted to change things.

Agile 116

Agile Development Productivity Management 116

Johanna Rothman

SEPTEMBER 27, 2023

Even if a 5 to 7-person team falls into the Everyone Starts Their Own Story trap (see Who’s Playing Agile Schedule Games? or Create Your Successful Agile Project ), the team can still know what's going on. Then, I watched Drunk Agile Episode 75: Team Size. The original architect and developers.) I was wrong.

Agile 110

Agile Culture Efficiency Development 110

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 27, 2020

Project lifecycles and cultures manage all those risks. And, you can decide if you want to try to change the culture. Or, you might only need informal demos to show people where you are. Solving Deterministic Problems Does Not Require an Agile Approach. You might show other people internal demos.

Agile 101

Agile Culture Productivity Management 101

Johanna Rothman

NOVEMBER 30, 2021

and Create Your Successful Agile Project. The closer to the left your products are, the more your managers might be open to changing their behaviors and the culture. TL; DR: “Stop making it harder” is a culture problem. But the demand for software developers was high and I was good. The closer to the right?

Culture 126

Culture Management Productivity Agile 126