Managing Product Development

I publish a monthly email newsletter, the Pragmatic Manager. Last month’s topic was Timeboxes Help Multisite Teams. Let me know if you like the formatting of the page the same way I format the email newsletter, or if I should not be so fancy-dancy.

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!

I’m particular about two things: calling a prose plan a project plan and calling a Gantt chart (or yellow stickies) a schedule. One of my colleagues emailed me last week, explaining he’d spent a week developing a project plan and was hoping I could take a look at it. “Sure,” I said. “Send it along.”

He did. It was a Gantt chart for the next three months, with one- and two-week tasks. I called him and asked for a project plan, with release criteria. Did he have any? No. Had he checked with the people who were going to do the work to see if they could buy into the schedule? No, none of them were assigned yet. Dead silence on my end, trying to figure out how to ask the next question: Did he realize his schedule was already behind because 6 people were supposed to have already started?

I finally just asked the question, ignoring tact. He was quiet. I asked, “Why is this schedule so important to you?” “My manager wants the project done in three months.”

Managers can want anything they want. But wanting it doesn’t make it happen. This is where it’s critical to get started on working by chunk, so you can finish some work, and see where you’re going (I use velocity charts).

He challenged me, “What do you use for a schedule if you don’t make a Gantt chart?” I explained I kept a three-to-four week rolling wave schedule, using inch-pebbles.

If you’re given a deadline, you don’t need a long schedule. You need a short in-depth schedule, along with knowing what done means. You need to spend your time managing the project, not defining a schedule.

If you want to try some templates for a project plan, take a look at the Manage It! templates.

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 posted last month’s Pragmatic Manager email newsletter, How Many Emergency Projects Do You Have? I just sent out a newsletter on timeboxes and how they help multisite teams. You can sign up for my newsletter, and see the issues right away.

Michael Hunter, the Braidy Tester, and one of the smartest testers I know, interviewed me on his DDJ blog. To be honest, I emailed him and asked if he’d like to interview me I had things to say about testing. The interview is here. You can’t leave comments there, so please leave them here.

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 was under the weather last week, and am finally well enough to think. I still have the raspy voice from coughing all week, but you can’t hear me. Since I worked out this morning, my brain is actually firing on all cylinders.

I signed a contract with Pragmatic Bookshelf for my next book about project portfolio management. This time, they wanted a schedule. I know I write in fits and spurts, so I was stumped. But I decided to take my own advice. I have a plan to timebox the writing in chunks, and I gave myself quarterly goals of a certain number of pages. Writing that number of pages isn’t a problem–writing that number of good pages might be a problem. I’ll be trying things out on you, I’m sure.

If you’re not sure the world needs a book on project portfolio management, take a look at Raven’s Project Management Cartoon from Project: Humor - Water Me. Sad, but too true.

I have finally gone back through all of my older blog entries and attached tags to them. This should help if you think you read something here, and can’t remember exactly what it was called.