Johanna Rothman

AUGUST 19, 2021

So when does it make sense to customize your agile approach to gain a strategic advantage? Example 1: Startup/Small Organization with Few Products. They offer their product in two versions: Pro and Lite. (No They want an agile approach, so they started with Scrum. Let's start with a couple of examples. Others mob.

Agile 105

Agile Tools Productivity Development 105

Johanna Rothman

APRIL 14, 2021

One of my clients wants to use shared services “teams” as they start their agile transformation. Their developers work on a product for months and years at a time. ” Shared service-thinking denies the reality of effective product development: A cross-functional team learns together as they develop the product. .”

Agile 119

Agile Efficiency Productivity Development 119

Harvard Business

MAY 15, 2018

Increasing volatility, uncertainty, growing complexity, and ambiguous information (VUCA) has created a business environment in which agile collaboration is more critical than ever. Intuitively, we know that the collaborative intensity of work has skyrocketed, and that collaborations are central to agility. This story is not unique.

Agile 135

Agile How To Efficiency Groups 135

Johanna Rothman

AUGUST 24, 2021

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

Agile Tools Productivity Analysis 105

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

Harvard Business

MAY 22, 2018

I know it is critical for the leadership to embrace agile, but the sad reality is that I’m not sure our leadership team will start before it’s too late. Rather than debating the advantages of agile teams, why not start demonstrating them? Perhaps my journey to agile will help you figure out how to begin your own.

Agile 131

Agile Energy Retail Case Interview 131

Johanna Rothman

AUGUST 26, 2021

They think agile approaches are tactics and agile tools are part of their strategy. That's why they want to Buy an agile approach. Worse, the longer they maintain their custom board, the more they spend on that internal product. And the less they have to spend on products that affect the customers.

Agile 96

Agile Tools Culture Strategy 96

Effective Managers

FEBRUARY 10, 2025

Introduction The alignment of employee skills with job requirements is not just beneficial, it is essential for maximizing employee engagement and the resulting productivity. The concept extends beyond technical skills to include cultural fit and alignment with organizational values.

Analysis 183

Analysis Culture Efficiency Training 183

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 12, 2020

Once the team completes that highest priority feature(s), the team can release the product. When we release, we can regroup and figure out what to do next for this product. Fork another product. (I I did this with several Lite vs Pro products using this approach.). Opportunities for More Agility.

Agile 113

Agile Productivity Management Development 113

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. ” One of the customers realized he wanted something different—something we didn't expect for this product.

Agile 117

Agile Development Productivity Management 117

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 11, 2021

Worse, most career ladders assume we can assess what a person can do, not on their contributions to an agile team. That means most career ladders don't fit agile teams or an agile culture. Instead of individual achievements, we can reward the types of agile leadership we want to see in agile teams.

Agile 95

Agile Engineering Productivity Culture 95

Johanna Rothman

JULY 22, 2021

Worse, many of these managers also want business agility. Business agility requires change. Product strategy, to define the value the products offer to the product's users/customers. In addition, you might need these product strategies too: Product architecture, to shepherd the technical value of a product.

Productivity 133

Productivity Strategy Strategy Strategy& 133

Johanna Rothman

SEPTEMBER 15, 2023

I started this series with many specific concerns about a particular interview question: “The product owner and dev team cannot decide on a sprint goal, even after hours of discussion. Instead, I see assumptions that reveal a divide-and-conquer, and possibly a command-and-control culture, not an agile culture.

Interviews 96

Interviews Culture Agile Efficiency 96

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 21, 2024

I started this series by discussing why managers didn't perceive the value of agile coaches and Scrum Masters in Part 1, resulting in layoffs.) Then, in Part 2 , I asked those unemployed agilists to review their functional skills, the skills people need to do a product development job well. Especially, Agile is Not a Silver Bullet.

Agile 96

Agile Management Metrics Culture 96

Johanna Rothman

FEBRUARY 25, 2021

The managers don't believe the teams need product owners, so the teams don't have POs. Those outcomes can help teams decide which agile approach(es) to start with and adapt. Let's start with who wants the teams to use an agile approach. Who Wants the Teams to Use an Agile Approach? They're having trouble with Scrum.

Agile 108

Agile Management Comparison Productivity 108

Johanna Rothman

AUGUST 12, 2019

I spoke at Agile 2019 last week. Here are my thoughts and where I think the “agile” industry is headed. Problems I See with “Agile” Here's a summary of problems I saw last week: Too many people think “agile” will solve all their problems. Culture requires management involvement.

Agile 87

Agile Culture Conference Management 87

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 6, 2020

Are you trying to make an agile framework or approach work? Maybe you've received a mandate to “go agile.” Or, maybe you're trying to fit an agile framework into your current processes—and you've got a mess. I've seen plenty of problems when people try to adopt “agile” wholesale.

Agile 111

Agile Software Construction Analysis 111

Harvard Business

JUNE 3, 2024

When companies leverage the diverse talents of their Asian workforce, they can evolve into more global, agile, and powerful hubs of innovation and growth.

Leadership 246

Leadership Agile Talent Company 246

Epicflow

OCTOBER 28, 2024

Here’s an overview of the main principles of this approach: Muda: aims to streamline project workflow by eliminating waste, e.g., overproduction, excess inventory, idle time, and product defects; Value Stream Mapping (VSM): visualizes the full process of value delivery (e.g., Agile methodology.

Engineering 248

Engineering Management Methodologies Resources 248

Johanna Rothman

SEPTEMBER 28, 2021

More of my clients say they want business agility. Yet, we don't share a common definition of business agility. Actions matter when it comes to business agility. Since managers create and refine the culture, they can create an environment that supports business agility. That's a good thing.) Actions Over Mindset.

Agile 89

Agile Management How To System 89

Johanna Rothman

JULY 29, 2021

Several of my clients have internal struggles about how to internally see the future of the product. 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. What can you do?

Agile 143

Agile Productivity Management Data 143

Harvard Business

JUNE 20, 2017

Culture is like the wind. For organizations seeking to become more adaptive and innovative, culture change is often the most challenging part of the transformation. But culture change can’t be achieved through top-down mandate. Product packaging was redesigned to be more user-friendly and increase adherence.

Culture 134

Culture Company Enterprise Leadership 134

Johanna Rothman

APRIL 1, 2024

(That link just goes to the first post) My most recent book: Project Lifecycles: How to Reduce Risks, Release Successful Products, and Increase Agility. In addition, here's the unedited transcript: Agile _ Adapt – Expert Talk – Johanna Rothman – April 2024 in docx format. I hope you enjoy this one.

Agile 89

Agile Video Interviews Productivity 89

Johanna Rothman

APRIL 9, 2024

I was on the Agile Uprising podcast this past Sunday, discussing my most recent book. Some of what we discussed: That managers want agility but do not care about any agile methods or frameworks. While we might think “agile” is another project organization method—or lifecycle—it's not. See (and hear!):

Agile 74

Agile Culture Productivity Consulting 74

Johanna Rothman

NOVEMBER 9, 2021

Strategy and Product Feedback Loops. Instead of teams being responsible for delivering product, the managers are responsible for explaining when the managers want to decide. What about product decisions? The product value team might need to see product deliverables at least once a week. Or finish a project.)

Productivity 106

Productivity Agile Management Tools 106

Harvard Business

JUNE 27, 2016

offices where employees were entrepreneurial, engaged, excited to come to work, and as a result were quickly developing new ideas for customer-facing products. Many of us know this intuitively: best practices are optimized for a particular place and time and don’t necessarily transfer well between cultures. Leaders from the U.S.

Culture 130

Culture Research Case Interview Development 130

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 8, 2022

The larger your product, the more likely you have components teams. I often see component teams because of the architecture of the product. In this first image, the Integrated System Program, the rest of the product uses the Platform of Common Services as components. InterRelated Program Product.

Productivity 116

Productivity Agile Efficiency Data 116

Johanna Rothman

APRIL 14, 2020

Anytime I've seen a successful innovation culture, I've seen these principles. Let me address a little about business agility and innovation. Business agility allows us to create a culture where we plan to change. Too many people think business agility is about the ability to do more of the same, faster.

Agile 83

Agile Efficiency Culture Resources 83

Johanna Rothman

MARCH 9, 2021

I said that when we focus on individual achievements and deliverables, we ignore the agile system of work. Worse, when we reward individual achievements we prevent an agile culture. That's because agile teams learn together as they create the product. Agile Behaviors for Learning and Working Together.

Agile 69

Agile Productivity Culture Management 69

Johanna Rothman

DECEMBER 11, 2019

We had (and still have) too many products to keep the same teams on them for a long time. For programs, the team stayed together and moved to a different feature set/internal product until the program finished. We could move to a new product and/or a new team. My job was to smooth the way for people to deliver products.

Agile 60

Agile Productivity Management Meeting 60

Johanna Rothman

SEPTEMBER 28, 2018

If you’re thinking about an agile transformation, you already know about feature teams. You might even call them/use them as product teams. You might wonder about organizing all the work as product work. The “Typical Product Development Organization” shows the kind of organization I see most often.

Productivity 74

Productivity Agile Culture Efficiency 74

Harvard Business

JULY 1, 2016

That’s our product, and that’s our passion. It launched a product, gathered feedback, and kept iterating as it scaled and added users. At the other is a product or service that solves the problem or addresses the market in a way nobody has thought of before. Your data isn’t even in the picture.

Productivity 132

Productivity Engineering Accenture Banking 132

Johanna Rothman

JULY 20, 2021

We talk a lot about empowered or self-organizing teams in the agile community. When Mark Kilby and I wrote From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams , we said the easiest way to create a system that worked for the team was for the team to create its own board. Agile Approaches Require Management Cultural Change.

Leadership 141

Leadership Agile Policies Tools 141

Tom Spencer

SEPTEMBER 1, 2023

Effective governance can serve as the bedrock of organizational culture, which shapes perceptions, attitudes, and interactions throughout the organisational hierarchy, between departments, and within project teams. Foster an inclusive culture that values different perspectives.

Government 89

Government Culture Ethics Agile 89

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 20, 2020

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? For example (books have affiliate Amazon links): Takeuchi and Nonaka published The New New Product Development Game in HBR in 1986. Womack and Daniel T.

Agile 66

Agile Software Productivity Culture 66

Harvard Business

MARCH 22, 2018

In Today’s Digital Economy, Agile Practices Can’t Be Limited to Just the IT and Development Realms. By Surya Panditi, SVP and GM, Agile Management, CA Technologies. Agile practices have a vital part to play in the rapid delivery and continuous maintenance of software-driven products and services.

Agile 85

Agile Survey Company Data 85

Johanna Rothman

OCTOBER 15, 2020

Isn't every iterative and incremental approach an agile approach? We often hear agile approaches are a mindset. An agile approach requires a change in culture at the team level, at the portfolio level, and in management. Agile approaches change what we discuss, how we work together, and what we reward.

Agile 70

Agile Training Training Culture 70