Program Management: Collaborating across the Organization

BT1
Concurrent Session
11/14/2013 10:15 AM

"Program Management:
Collaborating across the
Organization"
Presented by:
Johanna Rothman
Rothman Consulting Group, Inc.

Brought to you by:

340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073
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Johanna Rothman
Rothman Consulting Group, Inc.
Known as the “Pragmatic Manager,”Johanna Rothman helps
organizational leaders identify problems and risks in their product
development and recognize potential “gotchas,” seize opportunities, and
remove impediments. Johanna is the technical editor
foragileconnection.com and is author of Manage Your Job Search, Hiring
Geeks That Fit, Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and
Finish More Projects, the 2008 Jolt Productivity award-winning Manage It!
Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management, and Behind Closed
Doors: Secrets of Great Management. She is currently writing a book about
agile program management. In addition, Johanna writes columns
for Stickyminds.com and projectmanagment.com, and blogs
on jrothman.com, andcreateadaptablelife.com.

Agile Program Management:
Collaborating Across the Organization
Johanna Rothman
www.jrothman.com
@johannarothman
jr@jrothman.com
781-641-4046

What’s the Most Effective Way to
Move Information In Any
Organization?

2

© 2013 Johanna Rothman

Rumor Mill

3


Imagine Managing the Flow of
Features Through a Program ...

4


Teams Create Features and
Integrate

5


Medium Programs

6


Big Programs

7


Nuts and Bolts of Agile Programs
Think small to go big--short is
beautiful
Short iterations: <= 2 weeks
Small stories: <= 1-2 team days
Just in time, evolving architecture
Networks of cross-functional
teams
Short planning horizons
Plan to replan
9


How Do You Organize the Teams?
Any form of agile or lean works
for the project teams
What’s key is small batch size
and continuous integration
You don’t need branded agile
Be agnostic about how each
team works, as long as they
deliver
10


Feature-Done at Regular Intervals
Demo
Assess risk
Update the architecture
Update the roadmap
Update/Change the project
portfolio
...
11


The Core Team

12


Kanban for the Core Team
See the Work in
Progress
Keep the deliverables
small

13


Technical Program Team

14


Each Feature Team
Cross-functional
Covers the roles
Decides how they want to
manage their own process
Yes, they do!
They commit completed
features to the rest of the
program
15


Team Size Matters
Communication Paths=(N*N-N)/2
4 people, (16-4)/2=6
5 people, (25-5)/2=10
6 people, (36-6)/2=15
7 people, (49-7)/2=21
8 people, (56-8)/2=24
9 people, (81-9)/2=36
10 people (100-10)/2=45
16


How to Connect the Feature Teams?
Many people say Scrum of Scrums
Scrum of Scrums is a hierarchy
Does not take advantage of the
rumor mill
Manager-directed
Problematic in a geographically
distributed program
We need another way that is selforganizing that scales
17


Small World Networks
Small world
networks are
more-and-less
connected agile
teams

18


Six Degrees of Separation
How connected are you to
everyone else?
Some of you are highly
connected
Some less so
We can take advantage of
this and the rumor mill
19


Use Small World Networks
Feature teams take
responsibility
Use small world networks
Use communities of
practice
Requires roadmaps
Requires transparency
Requires facilitation
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Roadmap

21


Transparency
Each project must track its own
velocity and learn what done means
Keep stories small
Limit WIP
Velocity is personal to a team
Teams build trust across the program
People and teams start with
themselves and deliver, deliver, deliver

22


Recognize Inertia
Inertia helps you see when
things are stuck
What can you deliver
today?
How can you help your
team deliver today?
Iterations help focus the team
on short delivery cycles
23


Build Momentum
Momentum helps each
team deliver something
to each other and build
on micro-commitments
Goes back to extending
trust

24


Facilitation
Each feature team requires
a full-time agile project
manager/Scrum Master/
someone who is a servant
leader

25


Measurements That Might Mean
Something
Working product is best
Measure at the program
level
Measure what you want to
see
Cumulative ﬂow might be
helpful
26


But I’m Not Agile Yet...
Staged delivery is a tried and true alternative

27


Mix and Match Life Cycles

28


Release Trains Also Work

29


Add Me to Your Small World
Network...
Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Managment
Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More
Projects
Agile and Lean Program Management: Collaborating Across the Organization
Much more on jrothman.com
Stay in touch?
Pragmatic Manager: www.jrothman.com/pragmaticmanager
Please link with me on LinkedIn
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Program Management: Collaborating across the Organization

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