Dilbert – Management tips Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert – Management tips Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert – Management tips Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert – Management tips Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert – Management tips Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert – Management tips Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert – Management tips Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert – Management tips Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage It. Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage It. Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage It. Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage It. Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage It. Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage It. Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage It. Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage It. Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage It. Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage It. Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage It. Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage It. Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Scott Adams, the Manager “The principles I tried to establish with the staff early on, that seemed to have stuck, include these:” Have fun. Loosen up. Try something new. Often. Keep whatever works. No penalty for a new idea failing. Trying is the thing. Employees are more important than customers. Stop asking Scott for approval. Just do it. Managers get to see the financials. Being a jerk to coworkers is grounds for termination. Do whatever seems smart and fair to make customers happy. Watch the competition closely and borrow their best ideas. Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Chapter 8 - Steering the Project How to get “there”: 8.1 Steer with “rhythm” 8.2 Conduct Interim Retrospectives 8.3 Rank Requirements 8.4 Timebox Requirements Work 8.5 Timebox Iterations to 4 or fewer Weeks 8.6 Use Rolling-Wave Planning & Scheduling 8.7 Create a Cross-Functional Project Team 8.8 Select a Life Cycle based on our Project’s Risks 8.9 Keep Reasonable Work Hours 8.10 Use Inch-Pebbles 8.11 Manage Interruptions 8.12 Manage Defects from the beginning Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

What’s the rhythm? Some projects “churn”, making progress in stops and starts. Some projects “zoom”, accomplishing more than was expected as they go. What’s a reasonable rhythm? Serial life cycle projects may have lots of churning at different phases – and mask the problems. Agile life cycle project may churn during iteration planning, but then establish a consistent rhythm – of producing “time boxed” work. Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

What breaks the rhythm? Not knowing the most important requirements. Not knowing when the “gathering” should end. Allowing GUI changes without knowing the impact. Not knowing how “parts” fit into the architecture. Not staffing the project with the right people at the right time. Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Introspective by design! Avoid repeating bad experiences! At the end of the project – yes! Throughout the project – yes! Serial, iterative & incremental – at the completion of each milestone Agile – at the end of every iteration Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Knowing what to implement first, second, third, … Rank the Requirements Iteration Planning Knowing what to implement first, second, third, … How to: Pairwise comparisons Criteria ranking Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Move to shorter iterations Long iterations make it harder to maintain rhythm Shorter iterations: - Provide more frequent feedback - Reveal problems Causes of lost “rhythm”: Member estimates are poor Members are doing too much Members don’t know what to do first Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Rolling-Wave Planning “A rolling wave plan is a continuous detailed schedule that's only a few weeks long. As you complete one week of detailed schedule, you add another week to the end of the schedule. With a four- week rolling wave schedule, I never have less than four weeks of detailed schedule, and I never have more than four weeks of detailed schedule.” Rothman: http://www.ayeconference.com/Articles/RollingWave.html Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Beware of “Technical Debt” Creep Design and quality flaws in a team's work become a "debt" that must eventually be paid back. Part of the cost is obvious: the time & materials to repair the problem. The non-obvious and probably non-measurable costs: How much effort will it take to get to the root cause of the defect so that it doesn't occur a second time? How much will it affect our "goodwill" and thus reduce further and repeat sales? Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

The non-obvious and probably non-measurable costs (continued) How much will the existence of one defect hide the existence of other defects (with their own costs)? How much will the defect demoralize the team and increase staff turnover or reduce productivity? How much of an opportunity will the defect create for competitors? How much will the defect increase maintenance and support costs? In other words, every time someone asks a team to let quality slide, they are asking the team (and the organization) to take on debt with an unknown interest rate. Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

A Cross Functional Team Finish work faster. Single Function Teams finish their parts faster, but with no review or verification. Once their work is complete they return to their “silo”. Provide for a diverse project team – with collaboration occurring throughout the project. Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Agile Life Cycle Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Agile Life Cycle Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Agile Life Cycle Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Agile Life Cycle Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Getting more done with overtime? … or creating more work? “Industrial accidents increase disproportionately as hours increase above forty per week, or above 8 hours per day. More than half of all industrial accidents occur in jobs with extended working hours. The generally-accepted hypothesis is that the accidents result from tiredness. Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

There has also been recent news about the impact of long hours on medical interns, reporting that after long sessions they are twice as likely to have an auto accident while driving, and five times more likely to have a near miss. After a month of overtime, they drive, literally, as if they had had three or four stiff drinks.” http://www.xprogramming.com/xpmag/jatSustainablePace.htm Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

The more overtime… … the less work accomplished! Figure on roughly 6 hours of technical work per day 7 or 8 hours a day can be maintained for 1 or 2 weeks Sustained overtime has diminishing returns Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage Interruptions Two types: Project interruptions Protect the iteration’s work Handle the interruptions between iterations Keep track of all interruptions People interruptions Asking a question is an interrupt Have interrupt places – to minimize those interrupted Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert – Management tips Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert – Management tips Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Dilbert – Management tips Scott Adams Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Manage Defects – throughout! Minimize the build-up of technical debt Have developers developing and testers testing simultaneously Maintain a Defect Tracking System Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Prepare for Influence Make sure the team owns the problem & the solution. Collaborate… give and receive help. Understand team member’s motivation (WIIFM 1 ). Listen to the team. Buy-in means the team has a say – and maybe the right ideas. Don’t let your ideas get in the team’s way Other? 1 What’s In It For Me Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Software Development & Software Operations Cause of “interrupts” and delay in project development Operations: the folks the are responsible for monitoring and operating the production applications… The product that is the revenue generator versus Development: the future product… in development The interrupts and delays in development… Transfer resources as needed… Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Software Operations Manager Leads the operations behind the release and on-going success of GBS's innovative O+M Track software product. Works closely with other GBS managers as well as senior consulting staff to define, implement and assess operational enhancements that benefit our clients and our business. Critical areas of responsibility include: developing short and long-term operations plans developing and customer support, developing online demonstration and sales processes, working closely with key clients to scope, sell and deliver customized support programs. Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman

Development and Operations Development and operations work interact… with operational needs interrupting the development work. Difficult if not impossible to plan and estimate work needed for the development. Advice: Assign some folks to operations full-time (and rotate) – for a week or two Assume full-time development can occur 2 to 3 days a week, the rest of the time folks multi-task Add more people… with secondary responsibility to the project Treat the operational task as “product backlog” work Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management. Johanna Rothman