Managing Product Development

A reminder: I’m teaching a public project management workshop in Waltham, MA, Sept 22-24, 2008. If you would like to:

• Understand different lifecycles and when (and how) to use them
• Practice pragmatic approaches to organizing and estimating a project
• Learn a variety of ways to steer a project to success
• Learn how to develop and use release criteria
• Design the data you want to use to measure your project
• and practice, practice, practice this and more

You’ll want to join us. Everyone receives a copy of Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. (If you have that one, I’m happy to substitute another of my books.)

The more formal syllabus is here. The registration form is here (note the discount for multiple registrations at the same time). If you have questions, email me. I hope you join us.

Steve Berczuk (author of Software Configuration Management Patterns: Effective Teamwork, Practical Integration—I’ve only read pieces), has a great review of Manage It! One nice nugget:

This book has pragmatic advice on how to make progress and issues visible, how to plan a project, and most everything else you need to help a project come to a good conclusion. This book is unique in that while it discusses the benefits of agile lifecycles, it shows you how to make progress in a variety of software lifecycles, and gives advice on when to use the various lifecycles she discusses.

Thanks, Steve.

I discovered two more great reviews of Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. The first is a brief explanation of the Jolt awards. Take a look at Winners of the 18th Jolt Product Excellence Awards & Recipients of the Jolt Productivity Awards. (Scroll down a bit to see what Roland Racko said about Manage It!). One delightful quote:

Manage It by Johanna Rothman doesn’t have to say that because its encompassing wisdom and practical detailed hints speak with a clear voice giving a head slapping, obvious solution easily recognized as a practical fix for your current software management problem.

Martin White, who from his introduction, sounds like a project manager, posted a great review of Manage It! Some quotes I particularly liked:

It is when you get to Chapter Six that the author really starts to show her considerable expertise and her gift for communication. The chapter is entitled ‘Recognising and Avoiding Schedule Games’ and includes observations on various approaches to managing schedules, such as the ‘Bring Me a Rock’ game.

The chapter on managing meetings is quite superb, and starts with a section entitled ‘Cancel These Meetings’, highlighting that any meeting that does not clearly have a defined and measurable impact on the progress of the project should be cancelled.

Thank you Roland and Martin. You made my day today!

Take a look at the Stickyminds review of Manage It! Jennifer says:

I highly recommend this book to all project managers, from novices to those with more experience. This is an incredible resource that should be referred to frequently for advice on how to help you decide which project management practice or technique is appropriate for your project–which she helps you to apply immediately.

Thank, Jennifer!

I’ve signed all the paperwork, so now it’s official. I will be offering a public project management workshop September 22-24, 2008 in Waltham, Massachusetts. The workshop syllabus is at Manage It! Pragmatic Project Management Workshop. Everyone receives a copy of Manage It! plus a workbook for your writing and working through the workshop.

Have questions? Email me. Want to register? Here’s the registration form. If you’ve been thinking about bringing project management training into your organization but want to try before you buy, this is an ideal way to try me out.

I’ve been working with managers of varying stripes, and a middle manager was proudly explaining how he deals with getting people’s attention at meetings. “I get a big bucket and put it on a chair next to the door. Everyone dumps their cell phones or Blackberries or pagers in the bucket. It’s kind of like going through security at the airport.” He chuckled. Well, I do understand wanting to capture and maintain the attention of everyone in the room. But making people give up their tools seems a little nuts to me. I asked him about laptops. “Oh, no. They’re not allowed.” I knew he could improve his meetings.

I asked what he discussed at his meetings. “Oh, what everyone is doing.” How long are the meetings? “One to two hours.” Oh my. There is a better way.

I told him to cancel his next meeting and conduct one-on-ones with his managers instead if he needed to see status. I also told him it was worth deciding which problems he would try to solve in a group meeting. He’s got too many managers, so he can’t address everyone’s problems in one meeting–and shouldn’t. He needs to have meetings with the relevant people, make sure people discuss and develop an action plan with action items.

If you’re in a similar pickle, thinking you need status meetings, you can reset that thinking right now. Status meetings are not meetings; they are rituals. If your attendees would prefer your ritual meetings with doughnuts or wine or their laptops or cell phones or something else that distracts them from your meeting, it’s time to reconstitute your meeting.

Make your meetings events to solve problems and assign next steps. When you have meetings like that, you do not need buckets at the door. You’ll get done faster, which will help people get to their next meeting on time. (For more information, see chapter 10 in Manage It!, called “Managing Meetings.”)

Dave Christiansen wrote a lovely article, Plan a Better Project. He mentions Manage It!. Thanks, Dave.

I’m still catching up on posting links where either I or other people had aha moments:

TMI’s One-on-Ones discusses a bunch of things about one-on-ones, something Esther and I have been talking about forever (as well as in Behind Closed Doors.)

David Carlton explains how he adapted one-on-ones. (For the record, I love it when people say they adapt my suggestions to make it fit for them. I caught up with David earlier this month when I was at SD West, and he explained in person how he’d adapted them. I was thrilled then and thrilled now.)

Arnon talks about sticky planning vs project scheduling tools in Sticky notes vs. the computer. I have to admit, I don’t think I’ve ever explicitly said,  that sticky notes provide you “constant visibility.” (Arnon’s quote.) I wish I had. Maybe in the next edition of Manage It!

Deb Hartmann interviewed me (video and audio!) at Agile 2007. We mostly talked about schedule games from Manage It. (We briefly discussed Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management and Hiring the Best Knowedge Workers, Techies & Nerds.)

For those of you who’ve met me and are wondering, “Where are Johanna’s glasses?” They’re in my lap. They were reflecting too much, so I took them off. Luckily I could see well enough to have a conversation with Deb.

I’m pleased and excited to announce that Manage It! won a Jolt Productivity award.

They announced the awards with all the productivity awards on one slide, and we were supposed to stand up when our names were announced. They then do a drum roll and announce the Jolt winner for that category.

I saw Manage It! and my name on the slide and that was it. I jumped up right away, I was so excited. Maybe I’ll be more mature blase about this the next time I’m nominated for an award, but I bet not