software that matters - agile product management with impact mapping

SOFTWARE THAT MATTERSAgile Product Management with Impact Mapping

Nils Wloka

Consultant and Coach

codecentric AG

@nilswloka

Software development is at

the height of efficiency!

There is nothing so useless

as doing efficiently that

which should not be done at

all.

Peter F. Drucker

What‘s your greatest

challenge when developing

a software product?

Software products are

quickly conquering new

domains, solving complex

problems.

In complex systems,

causality can only be

determined retrospectively.

Our concept of software

requirements has originated

in another age.

The better requirements

engineering

and requirements management

are conducted within the project,

the

less expensive errors occur during

development, ...

www.ireb.org

Completeness

Unambiguity

Consistency

Correctness

What meaning do

these terms have in

a complex system?

The goal is to continuously

learn more about the

problem

and possible solutions.

There is a domain

that deals with

continuous learning...

Science

A method or procedure [...],

consisting in systematic

observation, measurement, and

experiment, and the formulation,

testing, and modification of

hypotheses.

Oxford English Dictionary

Wanted:

Fast

Cheap

Fault tolerant

Scientific

Raise the curtain for

Impact Mapping

Example:

I‘m responsible for the

customer support division

of a telecommunication

company

and need to cut costs.

1. Why do we want to

invest

in our product?

Reduce call center costs for 1st level

support by €250K per year

2. Who can help us

and who can keep us from

reaching our goal?

Consumers who want to or already have reported a service

disruption

... rufen nicht mehr im Callcenter an, um den

Bearbeitungsstatus Ihrer Tickets zu

erfragen

3. How do we want their

behavior to change?

Endkunden

Betroffene Kunden werden über das Auftreten und die

Behebung von Flächenstörungen

informiert.

... no longer call to inquire about their

support ticket‘s status

Kunden werden bei Änderungen am

Bearbeitungsstatus Ihrer Tickets

benachrichtigt.

4. What can we do to

facilitate this change?

... rufen nicht mehr im Callcenter an, um den

Bearbeitungsstatus Ihrer Tickets zu

erfragen

Consumers are notified when the status of their support ticket

changes.

Kunden können den Status ihrer Tickets

einsehen.

... erstellen ausreichend

qualifizierte Tickets ohne Hilfe des Callcenters

The Impact Map visualizes

hypotheses and shows

possible experiments.

Reduce call center costs for 1st level

support by €250K per year

Consumers who want to or already have reported a service

disruption

... don‘t call in case of

area outages.

Affected customers are actively notified

about the occurrence and rectification of

area outages

... no longer call to inquire about their

support ticket‘s status.

Consumers are notified when the

status of their support ticket changes.

Customers can see the status of their support tickets.

... create sufficiently detailed support

inquiries without help from

the call-center.

Customers are informed about the option of creating support tickets by

themselves.

Customers receive guidance while

creating support tickets.

Resellers with technical personnel

... can initiate interference

elimination by themselves.

Resellers can initiate interference tests by

themselves.

Resellers can initiate port resets by themselves.

We start small.

Identify and quantify goals

Create an Impact Map based on

your „wish list“

Diversify

It‘s the purpose of maps to

help us find the shortest

path to our destination.

Reduce call center costs for 1st level

support by €250K per year

Consumers who want to or already have reported a service

disruption

... don‘t call in case of

area outages.

Affected customers are actively notified

about the occurrence and rectification of

area outages

... no longer call to inquire about their

support ticket‘s status.

Consumers are notified when the

status of their support ticket changes.

Customers can see the status of their support tickets.

... create sufficiently detailed support

inquiries without help from

the call-center.

Customers are informed about the option of creating support tickets by

themselves.

Customers receive guidance while

creating support tickets.

Resellers with technical personnel

... can initiate interference

elimination by themselves.

Resellers can initiate interference tests by

themselves.

Resellers can initiate port resets by themselves.

Software that matters:

systematic observation,

measurement and

experiment.

Prioritize

Deploy minimal solution

Measure

Adjust Impact Map

Earn or learn!

Do you have any questions?

nils.wloka@codecentric.de

@nilswloka

Sometimes it‘s not that

easy...

There are too many goals.

Quantification is difficult.

There is no real goal.

More on this topic:

http://

www.impactmapping.org

I‘d be glad to share

experiences with you.

Thank you!