product management in an agile world - synerzip...
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Product Management in an Agile World
Paul Brownell
Hemant Elhence
February 4, 2010
© 2009, 2010 Paul Brownell. All Rights Reserved
Sponsored By
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Paul Brownell
• 15 years as a software executive
• Agile practitioner since 2001
• Specialist in Scrum and Outsourcing
• As Product Line Director at BMC, led several SCRUM teams distributed across India, Israel, and the US
• Highlighted in Dean Leffingwell’s book
“ Scaling Software Agility: Best Practices for Large Enterprises ”
2© 2009, 2010 Paul Brownell, All Rights Reserved
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Objectives
• Clarify role of Product Manager in Agile teams
• Recognize key challenges for Product Managers
• Learn to align organization models to Agile methods
• Define the right level of requirements, granularity and priority
• Adapt Agile Product Management to global distributed teams
• Answer “What are you going to deliver, and when will it be ready?”
• Avoid common pitfalls
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ComprehensiveDocumentation
ComprehensiveDocumentation
Processes and Tools
Processes and Tools
Contract Negotiation
Contract Negotiation
Following a PlanFollowing a Plan
Agile Fundamentals
overover
overover
overover
overover
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Scrum Process
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Scrum Roles
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Product Owner
• Develops backlog
• Determines priorities
• Serves as proxy for the user/customer
• Identifies business value
• Relates work units to business
objectives
• Defines acceptance criteria
• Interacts daily with teams
Scrum Master
• Facilitates development process
• Coordinates with other teams
• Provides status information
• Removes blocks and protects
from interruption
• Ensures implementation of
lessons learned
Team
•Designs software
•Codes Software
•Tests software
•Documents software
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Product Manager Role
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Product Owner
• Develops backlog
• Determines priorities
• Serves as proxy for the user/customer
• Identifies business value
• Relates work units to business objectives
• Defines acceptance criteria
• Interacts daily with teams
Product Manager
• Develops strategy
• Analyzes markets
• Manages portfolio
• Sets pricing
• Builds business partnerships
• Promotes product
• Supports sales
• Interacts with customers
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#1 Role Conflicts
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Product Owner
• Develops backlog
• Determines priorities
• Serves as proxy for the user/customer
• Identifies business value
• Relates work units to business objectives
• Defines acceptance criteria
• Interacts daily with teams
Product Manager
• Develops strategy
• Analyzes markets
• Manages portfolio
• Sets pricing
• Builds business partnerships
• Promotes product
• Supports sales
• Interacts with customers
customers team
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#1 Role ConflictsSurvival Tips
• Identify a Proxy: Business Analyst, Architect, Lead Developer or Lead QA
• Involve customers/clients to provide direct feedback and input
• Provide windows of scheduled availability
• Make time for: Release Planning, Sprint Planning, Demos
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#2 Adapting to Distributed TeamsChallenges
• Minimal face-to-face time
• Different time zones
• Language and culture barriers
• Hard to ‘sketch on a napkin’
• Discussions by email
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#2 Adapting to Distributed TeamsSurvival Tips
• Identify a Proxy in the same time zone: Business Analyst, Architect, Lead Developer, Lead QA
• Provide windows of scheduled availability.
• Make time for: Release Planning, Sprint Planning, Demos
• Attend daily standups if you can, or arrange regular touch points with the team
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Organization Structures –Combined Role
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customer team customer
Product Manager/Owner 1
Product Manager/Owner 2
Product A-F Product G-L
• Advantages
– Clear connection to customer
– Clear understanding of release status and content
• Keys to success
– Good proxies
– Careful time management
Product Line Owner
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team
Organization Structures –Split Role (Large Company, Many Products)
• Advantages
– Clear functional focus
– Match skills to function
– PO can co-locate
• Keys to success
– PM & PO tightly connected
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customer
Product Manager
Products A-F Products A-F
Products G-LProducts G-L
Product Owner
Product Line Owner
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team team
Organization Structures –Split Role (Small Company, Many Products)
• Advantages
– Clear functional focus
– Match skills to function
– PO can co-locate
• Keys to success
– PM & PO tightly connected
– Careful PM time management
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customer
Product Owner 1
Products A-F Products G-L
Product Owner 2
Product Manager
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#3 Planning Continuously Challenges
• Regular re-examination of priorities
• Smaller granularity deliverables
• Forest is built one tree at a time
• More meetings
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#3 Planning ContinuouslySurvival Tips
• Just-in-time deliverables
• Teamwork
• Use tools to stay organized: Rally, VersionOne, JIRA + GreenHopper
• Watch out for:
– Getting stuck in a rut
– Drifting away from original intent
– Overcomplicating the requirements
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#4 Optimizing Requirements GranularityChallenges
• Too detailed:
– Requires too much time
– Restricts implementation creativity
• Too big:
– Lack of clarity
– Can’t fit into a Sprint
– Too big to fathom
– Room for poor interpretation
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#4 Optimizing Requirements Granularity Survival Tips
• Start big, elaborate as needed
• “Just in time” requirements
• Team with your proxy to elaborate requirements
• Focus on…Who, What, Why
• …and How you know when you’re done?
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User Story: Model
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As a [user/persona] ,
I want to (goal/action) ,
so that I can (business objective) .
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User Story: Elaboration Example
– Story 1: As an IT person, I would like an automatic execution of configuration upon completion of deployment, so that I can reduce cost of maintenance.
– Story 2: As an IT person, I would like the option of installing both the database server and the web server on one machine in a single step, so that I can save time.
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Epic: As an IT person, I would like to reduce deployment time by half, so that I can reduce cost of maintenance.
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Scrum Process
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Prioritization Methods
• MoSCoW - Must, Should, Could, Won’t
• Bubble sort, pair-wise analysis
• Multi-voting
• Buy a feature
• Weighted criteria
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#5 Prioritizing BacklogDangers
• Multiple priority #1 means NO priority #1
• All customer value, all the time leads to brittle software
• Reprioritizing within an iteration creates chaos
• 80% complete on 80% of your Features
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#5 Prioritizing BacklogSurvival Tips
• Define clear business priorities and roadmap themes
• Focus on the top priority in the stack
• Move “throwing features overboard”discussion early in the lifecycle
• Don’t forget defects
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#6 What Will You Deliver & When?Challenges
• No ‘fixed plan’
• Rough sizing
• Unknowns not researched
• Solutions not designed yet
• New priorities might intervene
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#6 What Will You Deliver & When?Survival Tips
• Articulate business value
• Use themes to describe what, rather than how
• Adjust commitments based on your team’s ability to estimate and forecast
• Keep a running tally of: ‘done’, ‘will be in’, ‘might make it’, and ‘don’t count on it’.
• Explain the process – build confidence on maximizing value
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Agile
• A different philosophy
• Continuous planning
• Focus on customer value
• Regular analysis of priorities
• Relies on frequent communication
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Agile Advantages
• Adapts to changing business needs
• Allows flexibility in customer negotiation
• Provides opportunity to get customers deeply involved
• Offers regular visible demonstration of progress
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Questions?
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Hemant Elhence [email protected]
469.322.0349
29
Paul Brownell
Software Process
Product Strategy
Agile Coaching
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Synerzip in a Nut-shell
1. Software development partner for small/mid-sized technology companies
• Exclusive focus on small/mid-sized technology companies• By definition, all Synerzip work is the IP of its respective clients• Deep experience in full SDLC – design, dev, QA/testing, deployment• Technology and industry domain agnostic
2. Dedicated team of high caliber software professionals • Seamlessly extends client’s local team, offering full transparency• NOT just “staff augmentation”, but provide full mgmt support
3. Actually reduces risk of development/delivery• Experienced team - uses appropriate level of engineering discipline• Practices Agile development – responsive, yet disciplined
4. Reduces cost – dual-shore team, 50% cost advantage5. Offers long term flexibility – allows (facilitates) taking
offshore team captive – aka “BOT” option
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Synerzip Clients
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Thanks!
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Hemant Elhence [email protected]
469.322.0349
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Paul Brownell
Software Process
Product Strategy
Agile Coaching
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