See Your Feedback Loops: The Secret Sauce to More & Effective Agility

See Your Feedback Loops: The Secret Sauce to More & Effective Agility
Johanna Rothman

Description
Most leaders want organizational agility. They think that means the teams need to use a ticketing tool and do a lot of upfront planning. That planning will then allow the leaders to manage according to the plan.

But all that planning creates a lot of work in progress and multitasking—which looks a lot like a waterfall approach. The teams have so much work that they never quite finish. The teams roll over items from sprint to sprint and don’t fix defects when they first appear. The teams feel a ton of pressure and might even talk about “agile” death marches.

Everyone feels as if “agile” let them down.

No one has to work this way. Instead, we can review the various feedback loops and decide what to do next.

Any team—including managers—can create agility when they create and sustain short feedback loops. Short feedback loops are the secret sauce to real agility, regardless of what you call your approach.

Learning Objectives

1. Have a clear understanding of the different lifecycles and when to use each.
2. Be able to assess your project, product, and portfolio risks.
3. Know how to customize a lifecycle based on the unique culture and requirements of the team.
4. How to create shorter feedback loops in any lifecycle for product success.

Speaker:
Johanna Rothman

Johanna Rothman, known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” offers frank advice for your challenging problems. She consults with leaders and teams so they can learn to see alternate options that might work. Those practical alternatives can help them be more effective with others at work. With those choices, they can choose what—and how—to adapt their product development.

With her trademark practicality and humor, Johanna is the author of 20 books, hundreds of articles, and blog posts about many aspects of product development. Her most recent book is Project Lifecycles: How to Reduce Risks, Release Successful Products, and Increase Agility. Find her monthly newsletter and blogs at jrothman.com and createadaptablelife.com.

Agenda:
Noon PT: Announcements and Speaker Introduction
12:05pm PT: Talk