Managing Product Development

David Daly interviewed me, PM Interviews: Johanna Rothman by email. I answered in American spelling and he translated into UK/English spelling

Dave posted his review of Manage it! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. A quote:

Here’s what I like best about the book: it’s not theological. By this I mean Rothman doesn’t advocate one “true” way of running projects. She is very careful to be continually cognizant of context when she talks about different approaches you might take.

Dave also notes a bit about the schedule games in his review.

Dave Liebreich sent me this email:

I’m working with the new hire in our group, bringing him up to speed on our stuff. He noticed that I brought in my copy of “Manage It!”, and asked if it was to help me manage him.

[pause for laughter]

Never work for someone who refers to you as “it”.

I just about fell off my chair laughing.

Dave Is Right. The project is “it.” The people are “hes” and “shes.” See, this is why I don’t refer to people as “resources”or FTEs (full time equivalents).

(Besides, Behind Closed Doors if for managing people. Let’s keep the books straight!

Adam, from Write That Down, likes Manage it!. Here’s what he has to say:

There is a great book called Manage It!, by Johanna Rothman. She does not disappoint, and really gets into the nitty gritty details about managing projects. While this is billed as a “project management” effort, it really does apply to product managers a great deal.

What’s so cool is that Adam’s taken my templates and suggests a modification for product managers: a release plan from the salient bits of the project charter and the project plan.

That’s why I published the templates, and said to modify the templates for your own use. I’m thrilled other folks in the organization can find ways to use them.

I’m proud to announce that Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management is a Jolt Award finalist. Andy made a short video you might like to see.

I’m excited. Manage It! is up against other fine books, so there’s no guarantee it will win an award. But it’s very exciting to have made it this far.

Tom Cagley, of Software Process and Measurement fame, interviewed me a couple of weeks ago. The podcast is here. Enjoy!

Daniel Steinberg, my editor for Manage It! interviewed me a couple of weeks ago. The podcast is here.
We discussed some of the issues I’ve seen in organizations on projects. Some of the ideas we discussed were:

• What does the project manager do, even for an agile project?
• Has anything changed in project management?
• What happens when you ask people to multitask?
• How did I recognize the schedule games?
• Can anyone with an MBA manage projects?

In addition, I read excerpts from two of the schedule games (Split Focus and Hope is Not a Strategy).

Brad Appleton posted his review of Manage It!. I’m psyched that Brad liked it. Here’s a quote:

The chapter devoted to Recognizing and Avoiding Schedule Games is possibly worth the price of the book alone.

Thanks, Brad.

Anton has published a lovely set of comments about Manage It!. I especially liked this quote:

i just feel so comfortable with her take on project management – there is no agilist zealotry or flashy theatrics.

Also see the review from the Java User Group. The summary there was:

In conclusion I suggest this book as an indispensable reading to any modern project manager with agile orientation.

Projects@Work published a sidebar from Manage It!, Responsibility is Authority.