Johanna Rothman

Are you using waterfall dressed up as "agile?" You might be, if there's no joy or ease in your work. You don't have to use fake agility. Instead, you can use principles to build agility into any effort. Take back your joy and ease.

Everything you need to know to become and maintain your successful consulting business.

Free your inner nonfiction writer as you learn to write fast and well.

Great managers lead and serve others by creating an environment where people can do their best work. Create trust, loyalty, and engagement as a modern manager. Learn to lead and serve others with ease.

Want to create a culture of innovation? Work as management teams and encourage learning and experimentation.

Avoid outdated and bygone management traditions. Become a modern manager. Learn to manage yourself so you can lead and serve others with ease.

Distributed agile teams have a terrible reputation. They don’t deliver “on time,” and too often, they don’t deliver what the customer needs. However, most agile teams, have at least one remote team member. And, agile approaches are here to stay.

Don’t blindly apply agile practices designed for collocated teams. Instead, learn to use three mindset shifts and the agile and lean principles to create your successful distributed agile team. Use the tips and traps to help your team… Show more

Distributed agile teams have a terrible reputation. They don’t deliver “on time,” and too often, they don’t deliver what the customer needs. However, most agile teams, have at least one remote team member. And, agile approaches are here to stay.

Don’t blindly apply agile practices designed for collocated teams. Instead, learn to use three mindset shifts and the agile and lean principles to create your successful distributed agile team. Use the tips and traps to help your team succeed.

Leave the chaos of virtual teams behind. See how to help your distributed team succeed. Show less

You’ve tried to use an off-the-shelf approach to agile techniques, and it’s not working. Instead of a standard method or framework, work from agile and lean principles to design your own agile approach in a way that works for you. Build collaborative, cross-functional teams. See how small batch sizes and frequent delivery create an environment of trust and transparency between the team, management, and customers. Learn about the interpersonal skills that help agile teams work together so… Show more

You’ve tried to use an off-the-shelf approach to agile techniques, and it’s not working. Instead of a standard method or framework, work from agile and lean principles to design your own agile approach in a way that works for you. Build collaborative, cross-functional teams. See how small batch sizes and frequent delivery create an environment of trust and transparency between the team, management, and customers. Learn about the interpersonal skills that help agile teams work together so well.

In addition to seeing work and knowing what “done” means, you’ll see examples of many possible team-based measurements. Look at tools you can use for status reporting, and how to use those measurements to help your managers understand what agile techniques buy them. Recognize the traps that prevent agile principles from working in too many organizations, and what to do about those traps. Use agile techniques for workgroups, and see what managers can do to create and nurture an agile culture. You might be surprised at how few meetings and rituals you need to still work in an agile way.

Johanna’s signature frankness and humor will get you on the right track to design your agile project to succeed. Show less

The first edition of a joint venture from the Agile Alliance and the Project Management Institute. Tools, situational guidelines and an understanding of the various agile approaches available to enable better results. It is especially useful for those project managers accustomed to a more traditional environment to adapt to a more agile approach.

You have too many projects, and firefighting and multitasking are keeping you from finishing any of them. You need to manage your project portfolio. This fully updated and expanded bestseller arms you with agile and lean ways to collect all your work and decide which projects you should do first, second, and never. See how to tie your work to your organization’s mission and show your managers, your board, and your staff what you can accomplish and when. Picture the work you have, and make those… Show more

You have too many projects, and firefighting and multitasking are keeping you from finishing any of them. You need to manage your project portfolio. This fully updated and expanded bestseller arms you with agile and lean ways to collect all your work and decide which projects you should do first, second, and never. See how to tie your work to your organization’s mission and show your managers, your board, and your staff what you can accomplish and when. Picture the work you have, and make those difficult decisions, ensuring that all your strength is focused where it needs to be. Show less

Have you ever wondered about how your projects become late? Are you worried that your projects become later and you don’t know why?

Cost of delay can tell you where the delays occur and why. Common practices, such as multitasking, experts, and even other projects’ delay can make your project late. Learn simple tools and methods for analyzing and eliminating the costs of delay in your project.

Scaling process creates bloat. Dictating how to work to teams doesn’t work. What does? Servant leadership, autonomy, collaboration, and exploration. Learn how to use agile and lean program management to collaborate across the organization.

Do you have trouble estimating your projects? Maybe you need some ideas about how to think about your project or report your estimate. Maybe you need some ideas about how to recover from an incorrect estimate. This book has estimation guidance and troubleshooting guidance. You don't have to fall into estimation traps. There is a way out.

Traditional PM is broken. However, there are ways to create projects and manage risk in non-traditional ways. They work. Please listen to the webinar for more details.

Hiring a person for your team is the single most important decision you can make. It has long-lasting impact, whether you are the manager or a team member. Would you like to learn to hire great people? Not sure how? You need this book.

Great geeks are not the same as skill-based staff. You need to analyze your culture, determine your problems, define the essentials you need in a candidate, and then you’re off and running.

Great geeks adapt their knowledge to your context. One… Show more

Hiring a person for your team is the single most important decision you can make. It has long-lasting impact, whether you are the manager or a team member. Would you like to learn to hire great people? Not sure how? You need this book.

Great geeks are not the same as skill-based staff. You need to analyze your culture, determine your problems, define the essentials you need in a candidate, and then you’re off and running.

Great geeks adapt their knowledge to your context. One developer or technical manager is not interchangeable with another. Hiring Geeks That Fit takes the guesswork and cost out of hiring. Show less

Searching for a job is a big, complex, and scary prospect. There are so many things to do, so many choices to make. Where do you start? How do you keep track of it all?

Treat your job hunt like the project it is. When you use proven project management techniques that allow you to create a visual system, you’ll be able to increase your productivity, track your progress, evaluate your work, gain feedback, and throw out what doesn’t work while building on your successes.

Take… Show more

Searching for a job is a big, complex, and scary prospect. There are so many things to do, so many choices to make. Where do you start? How do you keep track of it all?

Treat your job hunt like the project it is. When you use proven project management techniques that allow you to create a visual system, you’ll be able to increase your productivity, track your progress, evaluate your work, gain feedback, and throw out what doesn’t work while building on your successes.

Take control of the most important project you’ll ever work on: finding fulfilling work. Show less

Your project can’t fail. That’s a lot of pressure on you, and yet you don’t want to buy into any one specific process, methodology, or lifecycle.

Your project is different. It doesn’t fit into those neat descriptions.

Manage It! will show you how to beg, borrow, and steal from the best methodologies to fit your particular project. It will help you find what works best for you and not for some mythological project that doesn’t even exist.

Before you know it, your project… Show more

Your project can’t fail. That’s a lot of pressure on you, and yet you don’t want to buy into any one specific process, methodology, or lifecycle.

Your project is different. It doesn’t fit into those neat descriptions.

Manage It! will show you how to beg, borrow, and steal from the best methodologies to fit your particular project. It will help you find what works best for you and not for some mythological project that doesn’t even exist.

Before you know it, your project will be on track and headed to a successful conclusion.This book is a reality-based guide for modern projects. You’ll learn how to recognize your project’s potholes and ruts, and determine the best way to fix problems—without causing more problems. Show less

Great management is difficult to see as it occurs. Great management happens in one-on-one meetings and with other managers—all in private. It’s hard to learn management by example when you can’t see it.

Find out what goes on Behind Closed Doors and see how a skilled manager turns around a tricky management situation in seven weeks. You’ll learn how to provide and use feedback effectively, and become a better coach and mentor peers and team members. As you begin to build a cohesive… Show more

Great management is difficult to see as it occurs. Great management happens in one-on-one meetings and with other managers—all in private. It’s hard to learn management by example when you can’t see it.

Find out what goes on Behind Closed Doors and see how a skilled manager turns around a tricky management situation in seven weeks. You’ll learn how to provide and use feedback effectively, and become a better coach and mentor peers and team members. As you begin to build a cohesive, “jelled” team you’ll learn how to use your influence across the organization and make better choices daily to survive and thrive.
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Many people are confused about corrective action. They know it’s a requirement for compliance to standards such as ISO 9001. In some cases, the mandate is imposed by customers or regulatory agencies. Compounding this misunderstanding is that much of what has been written about the corrective action process is targeted toward manufacturing organizations, with the predictable references to tooling, production equipment, inspection of materials, storage issues, component design and the like. For… Show more

Many people are confused about corrective action. They know it’s a requirement for compliance to standards such as ISO 9001. In some cases, the mandate is imposed by customers or regulatory agencies. Compounding this misunderstanding is that much of what has been written about the corrective action process is targeted toward manufacturing organizations, with the predictable references to tooling, production equipment, inspection of materials, storage issues, component design and the like. For software organizations, the product is intangible, and the processes may be electronically defined, derived, and controlled. Corrective action and the manner in which it is implemented needs to be explained specifically for software, both in language and supporting documentation Show less

Good technical people are the foundation on which successful high technology organizations are built. Establishing a good process for hiring such workers is essential. Unfortunately, the generic methods so often used for hiring skill-based staff, who can apply standardized methods to almost any situation, are of little use to those charged with the task of hiring technical people.
Unlike skill-based workers, technical people typically do not have access to cookie-cutter solutions to their… Show more

Good technical people are the foundation on which successful high technology organizations are built. Establishing a good process for hiring such workers is essential. Unfortunately, the generic methods so often used for hiring skill-based staff, who can apply standardized methods to almost any situation, are of little use to those charged with the task of hiring technical people.
Unlike skill-based workers, technical people typically do not have access to cookie-cutter solutions to their problems. They need to adapt to any situation that arises, using their knowledge in new and creative ways to solve the problem at hand. As a result, one developer, tester, or technical manager is not interchangeable with another. This makes hiring technical people one of the most critical and difficult processes a technical manager can undertake. Show less

I wrote as part of a team: Gerald M. Weinberg, James Bach, Naomi Karten, and a group of successful software consultants present powerful ideas on how software engineers and managers can amplify their professional effectiveness—as individuals, as members of teams, and as members of organizations.

The ability to give honest, effective feedback to someone is important. Equally important is the ability to hear and understand that feedback. Learn how to use good feedback to build a stronger team.