Agile and Lean Program Management: Collaborating Across the Organization

Agile or lean is working for you, on smaller projects. Now, you’ve got this big program. Will agile scale? Of course. Does it have to be in a big framework? Of course not.

When you scale agile to a program, you perform program management. You do not need Big Planning and huge teams. You need feature teams who work with autonomy, collaboration, and exploration. Add in autonomous program teams, and you have agile and lean program management.

We will discuss how you can create a program and run it in an agile way. We’ll examine how to report and obtain status, how to create and maintain a coherent architecture, and how to coordinate teams who focus on their project deliverables to create an overall product for the organization. We’ll examine the issues of how to organize the teams, synchronize iterations, and know when you are ready to release.

Whether you work in an organization that uses agile methods or more traditional approaches, you can learn new ideas about managing programs. Bring your questions and your concerns.


Johanna Rothman

About Johanna Rothman

Johanna Rothman, known as the “Pragmatic Manager,” offers frank advice for your tough problems. She helps leaders and teams learn to see simple and reasonable things that might work. Equipped with that knowledge, they can decide how to adapt their product development.

With her trademark practicality and humor, Johanna is the author of 18 books about many aspects of product development. She’s written these books:

  • Project Lifecycles: How to Reduce Risks, Release Successful Products, and Increase Agility
  • Become a Successful Independent Consultant
  • Free Your Inner Nonfiction Writer
  • Modern Management Made Easy series: Practical Ways to Manage Yourself; Practical Ways to Lead and Serve (Manage) Others; Practical Ways to Lead an Innovative Organization
  • Write a Conference Proposal the Conference Wants and Accepts
  • From Chaos to Successful Distributed Agile Teams (with Mark Kilby)
  • Create Your Successful Agile Project: Collaborate, Measure, Estimate, Deliver
  • Agile and Lean Program Management: Scaling Collaboration Across the Organization
  • Manage Your Project Portfolio: Increase Your Capacity and Finish More Projects, 2nd edition
  • Project Portfolio Tips: Twelve Ideas for Focusing on the Work You Need to Start & Finish
  • Diving for Hidden Treasures: Finding the Value in Your Project Portfolio (with Jutta Eckstein)
  • Predicting the Unpredictable: Pragmatic Approaches to Estimating Project Schedule or Cost
  • Manage Your Job Search
  • Hiring Geeks That Fit
  • The 2008 Jolt Productivity award-winning Manage It! Your Guide to Modern, Pragmatic Project Management
  • Behind Closed Doors: Secrets of Great Management (with Esther Derby)

In addition to articles and columns on various sites, Johanna writes the Managing Product Development blog on her website, jrothman.com, as well as a personal blog on createadaptablelife.com.

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