Agile Thinkers

Q1 - Johanna Rothman

Today I kick off a series of questions and answers with another big-hitting agile thinker Johanna Rothman.   Johanna has recently published the excellent Manage It! and she'll be giving away a copy as we near the end of the questions.  She also writes one of my favourite blogs.

Q1: Hi Johanna, I know you mostly through your (excellent) blog and your other writing.  Could you please tell us a little more about yourself - both personally and professionally?

Okay, this is a tougher question than it should be :-)

Personally, I'm married to a wonderful guy who can actually fix stuff around the house. When I "help," he always asks me if I've read step 2, because I tend to gloss over some of the early details in my impatience to get to the meat of the problem. We have 2 daughters, 19 and 15. I no longer know anything about small children, but I know a lot about teenagers :-)

Professionally, I have a BS in Computer Science and an MS in Systems Engineering. For you BAs, that MS is about how to develop systems, not how to write requirements. I started working professionally in 1977 as a developer. About 8 years later, I became a tester for a couple of  years, and then focused on project management, program management, and people management. I write code for fun still, but it's definitely not production quality code. I started my consulting business Labor Day of 1994. (For my non-US readers, that's early September, 1994.)

Q1 - Johanna Rothman

Today I kick off a series of questions and answers with another big-hitting agile thinker Johanna Rothman.   Johanna has recently published the excellent Manage It! and she'll be giving away a copy as we near the end of the questions.  She also writes one of my favourite blogs.

Q1: Hi Johanna, I know you mostly through your (excellent) blog and your other writing.  Could you please tell us a little more about yourself - both personally and professionally?

Okay, this is a tougher question than it should be :-)

Personally, I'm married to a wonderful guy who can actually fix stuff around the house. When I "help," he always asks me if I've read step 2, because I tend to gloss over some of the early details in my impatience to get to the meat of the problem. We have 2 daughters, 19 and 15. I no longer know anything about small children, but I know a lot about teenagers :-)

Professionally, I have a BS in Computer Science and an MS in Systems Engineering. For you BAs, that MS is about how to develop systems, not how to write requirements. I started working professionally in 1977 as a developer. About 8 years later, I became a tester for a couple of  years, and then focused on project management, program management, and people management. I write code for fun still, but it's definitely not production quality code. I started my consulting business Labor Day of 1994. (For my non-US readers, that's early September, 1994.)

Q2 - Johanna Rothman

Q2: Could you tell us a little about each of your books?

• Hiring the Best Knowledge Workers,Techies & Nerds: The Secrets and Science of Hiring Technical People is about how to hire, from developing a hiring strategy to the first day and what to do if you can't find the right person. I wrote it because I've been fortunate enough to hire 100 or so people when I was a manager (and live with them in the organization). I also wrote it because I realized when I did assessments that a lot of the problems I saw in organizations was that nice people were in the wrong jobs.
• Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management I pair-wrote with Esther Derby. We saw managers failing at their jobs--not even completely failing, but missing significant portions of their jobs. If managers don't develop personal and trusting relationships with their staff (and their peers), they can't effectively manage. What a waste. So, we wrote the book.
• Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management is the book I've been writing for 10 or so years :-) I started writing articles about project management in 1997, and had been teaching project management since the late 80's, so it made sense to finally write the book. It's funny--some people have said, "It's a big book" but I couldn't write it any smaller. I'm very proud of this book, because I didn't include anything I haven't actually done on a project.

My next book is about managing the project portfolio. It turns out that a number of schedule games (I named 15 in Manage It!) arise from not managing the project portfolio, so I decided it was time to tackle that subject. I've been managing the portfolio in organizations and helping managers determine what they need to do as a consultant since the late 80's, so I have a lot of knowledge here too :-)

Q3 - Johanna Rothman

Q3: Of your books, which one is your personal favourite (for whatever reason)?

Come on! That's like asking which of your children you love more :-)

I'm very proud of Hiring the Best, because I learned how to write while writing that book. I'm thrilled with the pairing I did with Esther on Behind Closed Doors. And, I love Manage It! because although I prefer agile or incremental approaches, I can see when it makes sense to use other approaches, and I hope my readers will see that too.

Q4 - Johanna Rothman

Q4) Where would you send a seasoned PM who wants to know more about agile project management and software development?

 

First, I would suggest that the PM read _Manage It!_, because some seasoned PMs have funny ideas about Agile. Agile is the most disciplined approach to software, because the discipline arises from the team (with obstacle removal by the PM). But some seasoned PMs don't realize that the team's discipline is more important than the PM's discipline. With a disciplined team, the team can accomplish great things. But with just a disciplined PM, everyone is frustrated, and only the PM can solve problems. Not a scalable solution. Then, it depends on how the PM learns and the PM's experiences. A seasoned PM with an open mind might benefit from an Agile conference or a Scrum class. But in my experience, the PM will need to learn collaboration and team skills. The best place to do that is at the AYE conference (yes, I'm one of the hosts).

Q5 - Johanna Rothman - The Hudson Bay Story

Q5) I loved the Hudson Bay story in your book ... can you share that here?

Sure. Here's the quote from _Manage it!_ :"The Hudson Bay Start approach was originated by the Hudson Bay Company in the 1600--1700s in north eastern Canada. The Hudson Bay Company outfitted fur traders. To make sure the traders hadn't forgotten anything they needed, they left Hudson Bay and camped just a few miles away. By making camp just a few miles away, the traders ensured they hadn't forgotten any tools or supplies---before they abandoned civilization. With just a short start to their journey, they had a better idea about their ability to endure the winter.

On one notable project, the management team mandated a new computer, which necessitated a new compiler, a new build system, a new product with a new GUI, and most of a new team. The team had no idea how to make anything happen, so I suggested we use a Hudson Bay Start. I suggested we do "Hello world" just to see if we could. Of course, everyone laughed at me (sometimes that's the role of the PM), and it took us an entire week to write Hello world and nothing else to the screen. We celebrated at the end of the week, and now we had enough data to estimate what it might *really* take to do the work. Sure, we went a little faster as people learned how to make the infrastructure work, but the product was difficult to imagine and implement. Our estimates were surprisingly close for several months. That's the value of a short iteration. Learn by doing and use that data to predict the next iteration.

Q6 and Q7 - Johanna Rothman

Q6) What's the most fun you have in your job?

I love all of the consulting, teaching, and writing that's part of my job now. I love meeting all these people all over the world. I love doing assessments, and seeing how people are actually working. Writing about that so the leadership can choose to change--that's a challenge and I do enjoy it. I get a kick out of teaching and helping people learn new approaches. I really enjoy all the other consulting too: facilitating a retrospective or strategic planning or portfolio gathering and evaluation--helping people see what to do and helping them be successful--is such a blast. Writing is a different kind of fun. Most often, writing is solitary, so I enjoy it, but sometimes I wrestle with my brain to get the words out :-) When I do succeed, I feel great.

Q7) What's the least enjoyable part of your job?

It's sometimes difficult to help the accounting people at my clients live up to the terms we agreed upon at the beginning of the work.

Well done Johanna Rothman

... and to all the other winners in the 2008 Jolt Awards

Johanna won a productivity award for Manage It! Your Guide to Modern Pragmatic Project Management