I started this series by saying a team can create a useful project charter in less time than you think. So what prevents teams from doing so? Too often, the project is not ready. The team might be ready, but the project is not. In effect, the project starts with scarcity. (I used to think […]
My podcast this week is an excerpt from a fantasy short story. I will finish it today, mostly because it’s due! Yes, I’m traveling. Yes, I agree, I look terrible. Too bad. I meet my deadlines. I promised you a (mostly) weekly peek into my writing. You get it. (I expect to miss next week’s
I am so pleased to announce I have a short launch video for Effective Public Speaking: How to Use Content Marketing With Stories to Show Your Value. Len Epp, from Leanpub, interviewed me. We both had a great time. While I love to speak about my books, I find doing a video like this challenging.
Do you use schedule or tracking tools to predict the future? None of them can predict the future. Worse, too many of them hide the past, especially the recent past. A schedule or tracking tool can only predict one thing: the first possible date you cannot prove you cannot finish the project/story by. Let me
This week’s podcast is an excerpt from a romantic suspense spy story. Enjoy! The Podcast: The Transcript: This is 60 Seconds of Writing in Public with Johanna Rothman for October 24, 2025, where I read an excerpt of just a minute of some writing in progress. This is part of an espionage, spy, short story.
So far, I’ve addressed how a project charter can help a team start a project fast and well. That’s why the project charter must clarify product vision, the various project risks, and product risks. And, it’s equally important to know what done means. If the team does not know how little they can do to
This week’s podcast is from the opening of a romantic suspense short story. Enjoy! (Update on Monday: I forgot to publish this because I was so focused on finishing the story!) The Podcast: The Transcript: This is 60 Seconds of Writing in Public with Johanna Rothman for October 17, 2025, where I read an excerpt
The various AI vendors want us to trust their autonomous agents. I have several problems I would love to use AI to solve. (Including updating all the tags on this site!) However, I cannot trust the agents yet. Even when I use interactive prompting, I’m not happy with the results. Those results can change (non-deterministic
This week, my podcast is the opening of a short story, a portal fantasy. Enjoy! The Podcast: The Transcript: This is 60 Seconds of Writing in Public with Johanna Rothman for October 10, 2025, where I read an excerpt of just a minute of some writing in progress. This is the opening of a (hopefully)
In Project Charter Part 2: Clarify the Project Driver, Boundaries, and Constraints for This Project, I explained how project risks can affect the team’s approach to the work. But project risks are not the same as product risks. Product risks are about the need for product innovation. The more innovation this product needs, the more