Johanna Rothman: Fake “Agile” is the Norm - How to Instill Agility, not Agile

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Summary:
Is your team or project supposed to “be agile?” You might not feel that way if you have a years-long backlog, standups are individual status reports, and everyone is still multitasking. The people on the project want to do great work. But how you work feels a lot like an “agile” death march.
There’s a reason you feel that way. You’re using fake agility—a waterfall lifecycle masquerading as an agile approach. Worse, fake agility is the norm in our industry.
No one has to work that way.
Your management does not care about “agile”—but they care a lot about agility. Instead of fake agile, you can assess your culture, project, and product risks to select a different approach. You can choose how to collaborate, so you can iterate over features and when to deliver value. When you do, you are more likely to discover actual agility and an easier
way to work.

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

Johanna Rothman's Bio:
A multi-genre fiction writer, Johanna Rothman writes about intelligent people who create —or encounter trouble. Regardless of how they find themselves in trouble, these characters find solutions—often in imaginative ways. In addition to her short story collections, she has published short stories in Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, Fiction River, and Holiday Spectaculars.

An award-winning author of twenty nonfiction books about managing product development, Johanna incorporates humor—not just practicality—into her nonfiction. All because life is too short to take too seriously.
See her newsletters and all her writing at [www. jrothman.com ](www. jrothman.com )and
[www.createadaptablelife.com](www. jrothman.com ).