One of my program management clients is organizing a program and is having trouble thinking about a delivery model that fits their program. They are transitioning to agile and are accustomed to traditional releases. When I suggested they have someone representing deployment on their core team, that was an initial shock to their system, and now they see that it was a good idea. They don’t...
Someone asked me again about self-assessments for their agile transition. That got me thinking about this problem of transitioning to agile. I don’t believe agile is for everyone in every circumstance.
Some people claim agile has “crossed the chasm.” Certainly, many people are aware of agile. Many people understand that a cross-functional team works in increments, delivering...
I have an article about test dashboards up on TechTarget. It’s called How to measure test progress: Every picture tells a story. The article has pictures. If you want more pictures, see Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Enjoy!
I had an email conversation with a colleague about when you let people fail versus when you rescue them—how you nurture leadership. The context is with people who are new to management, or new to a particular piece of work in a project.
If you’re agile, I say you pair these people and be done with it. No problem. But my colleague is not agile. So, the first option is not going to work...
Anton Bangratz made my day today with his post, Management Myths Debunked by Johanna Rothman. He really liked Working Long? Rethink Why. I liked his reaction. Actually, I loved his reaction. Happy dance.
The myths to date are here:
Now that the election is over, we have an opportunity to reflect on some of the project management and hiring practices. I’m going to blog here and over at Hiring Technical People because the bits are just too juicy to leave untouched.
Are you working long? My column, Management Myth 10: I can Measure the Work by the Time People Spend at Work is posted today.
People who work long hours think they also work hard. They are. But they are often not working smart. If you have a lot to do, you want to work smart, not just hard and long. What do you do if you have a manager who believes this myth?
At Agile 2012, Lisamarie Babik and I led an experiential workshop called Building a Team Through Feedback. We didn’t have slides; we had a first draft of an article as our handout. We worked on that article, and now we have a real article, Building a Team Through Feedback as our output.
Many months ago, Rebecca asked an interesting question about technical debt in projects. She asked,
How to start when there’s a really big mess? In that case, small, just being a professional clean-up acts may not even make a dent.
I’ve been having some strange email conversations with two testers, one business analyst, and a project manager. Yes, a total of four new people. They have each found jobs on projects. And, they are in over their heads. Each of them wrote to me, hoping I would help.
