Product Ownership at USAStaffing program at OPM

1. Bridget Dongarra and Richard Cheng
Agile @ OPM: Stakeholder Collaboration and Individual
Interactions

2. Bridget Dongarra
• Product Owner and Manager at OPM
• CSM, CSPO, PMP
• 12 years with USA Staffing
• 3 years of experience implementing
Agile in Government
• Bridget.dongarra@opm.gov
• www.linkedin.com/pub/bridget-
dongarra/4/48a/441/

3. Richard Cheng - @RichardKCheng
• Agile trainer & coach
• CST, CSM, CSPO, CSP, SPC, PMP,
PMI-ACP
• Founder & executive committee
member of Agile Delivery for
Agencies, Programs, and Teams
(ADAPT)
• Experience in Federal and
commercial Agile transformations

4. “To modernize the federal retirement
system … the Office of Personnel
Management is taking a new tack that
focuses on incremental changes*.”
Quote from former OPM Director John Berry in an Interview with Federal News Radio
*http://www.federalnewsradio.com/86/1937813/OPM-Director-John-Berry-promises-big-changes-for-
hiring-retention-retirement

5. Agile @ OPM

6. USA Staffing
Support Team
Endeavor
Core
Galactica
BI/Reports
Odyssey
Data WH
Infinity
Onboarding
Serenity
Core
• Managers
• Customer
Comms
• DBAs
• Sys Admins
• 508 Lead
• Security
• Test
Coordinatr
• PO
• SM
• Archite
ct
• Devs
• BAs
• PO
• SM
• Architect
• Admin
• Devs
• BAs
• PO
• SM
• Architect
• ETL
• SQL
Expert
• Devs
• BAs
• PO
• SM
• Architect
• Devs
• BAs
• PO
• SM
• Architect
• Devs
• BAs

7. Discussion
1.Discuss patterns of effective Product
Ownership on Federal programs
2.Discuss struggles with Product Ownership in
Federal Programs

8. Feds as Product Owners!
Federal Product Ownership

9. Project Management vs.
Product Management

10. Qualities of a Good Product Owner
1. Bandwidth
2. Power
3. Knowledge
4. Interest
5. Direction

11. Product Owner Activities
Work
with the
Scrum
team
Work
outside
the
Scrum
team
•Work with SMEs,
Stakeholders,
Customers
•Understand needs
•Validate Product
Product
Backlog
Refinement
•Create PBIs
•Split PBIs
•Reorder the Product Backlog
Product
Owner

12. Discussion
1. Discuss the customer engagement
practices you have seen on Federal
programs
2. Discuss the constraints Federal
programs face when dealing with
customer engagement

13. Customer Engagement Best Practices
Train customers on Agile
Embed Account Managers with the customer
Use every interaction to forge a partnership
Include customers in the Agile/Scrum process
Structure contracts for Agility

14. Agile Value Proposition

15. Recap
Customer Engagement
• Train customers
• Account Management
• Partnership
• Include customers in
Agile/Scrum
• Contract Agility
Product Ownership
• Bandwidth
• Power
• Knowledge
• Interest
• Direction

16. Agile and Federal Contracts

17. Acquisition / Procurement
Contracting professionals:
• Work early and often with the business
• Training and coaching
RFP/RFQ:
• State desired outcome, not SOW
• Smaller, shorter contracts
• Past experiences based on results, not knowledge
Governance
• Shift away from approval before start to acceptance when complete
• Govern outcomes and milestones, not work and sequencing

20. Contact Information
Richard K Cheng
richard.cheng@excella.com
703-967-8620
http://www.excella.com
Twitter: @RichardKCheng

21. Contact Information
Bridget Dongarra
Manager, Product Development Section
USA Staffing
www.opm.gov/HRS
M: 202-553-1319
Bridget.Dongarra@opm.gov
www.linkedin.com/pub/bridget-dongarra/4/48a/441/