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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 for agileconnection.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, and createadaptablelife.com.

Speaker Presentations
Monday, November 11, 2013 - 8:30am
Half-day Tutorials
Agile Program Management: Networks, Not Hierarchies
NEW

When you think of program management, do you think of big lumbering organizational beasts that add little value, and people demanding “When will you be done?” or “Can we add this feature before the desired release date?” Agile program management encourages small-world networks of collaborative teams that can solve problems and deliver features fast. That requires the entire program be agile and lean—using small batch sizes, integrating continuously, having short iterations, and tracking cycle time so you can coordinate across the organization.

Monday, November 11, 2013 - 1:00pm
Half-day Tutorials
Congruent Coaching: An Exploration
NEW

We have opportunities to coach people all the time. Much of what we see as coaching is actually undercover training. Real coaching is richer—offering support while explaining options. In this interactive session, Johanna Rothman invites you to explore how to coach, regardless of your position in the organization. Teaching is just one option for coaching. You have many other options, depending on your coaching stance. You may select a counselor’s stance if you are managing up or a partner’s stance if you are a peer.

Thursday, November 14, 2013 - 10:15am
Projects & Teams
Program Management: Collaborating across the Organization

To be most effective when managing a large program, the component projects should limit their batch size, create networks of people, and report status in a way that works for the entire program. For those of you who are not quite ready for agile, Johanna Rothman explains how to use staged delivery, release trains, or RUP as lean(er) alternatives to waterfall and agile. Johanna explains how to encourage project teams to create communities of practice using their social networks—start with the existing rumor mill and build on it more formally.