Articulation of customer role & responsibilities in determining the right thing to build sets the Agile Technical Team up for success.

1. There are no answers, only stories.
~ Garrison Keillor
MANAGEMENT:
PRODUCT V. PROJECT
by Karen Favazza Spencer
for Agile Coaches
May 24, 2011
Pecha Kucha (20x20)

2. THE GENESIS OF AGILE
By Developers & for Developers
Improve communication amongst themselves
Improve communication with the Biz
Eliminate the “noise.”

3. WHAT THE BIZ HEARD
Do it this way and you’ll get Better Products
Do it this way and you’ll get More Faster
Do it this way and we’ll be responsible for the
product
Do it this way and we don’t need to bother with
requirement elicitation & documentation
Do it this way and you don’t have to do all sorts of
the other Product Management work. It’s MAGIC!

4. THAT’S NOT WHAT WE SAID
The simplicity of the Agile Development concept
masks the complexity of Product Decision Making

5. AGILE PLANNING
Level Frequency Owner
Vision
1- Vision 6 - 12 mo. Biz
Roadmap
Release 2- Roadmap 6 - 12 mo. Biz
Sprint 3- Release quarterly Biz & Team
Daily Scrum
4- Sprint 2 - 4 Wks Team
5- Scrum Daily Team
based on Rally Chalktalk by Rachel Weston

6. THE PRODUCT OWNER
The Man or Woman with Two Countries
... with two jobs
... with two constituencies
... with two responsibilities
... SME... PRoduct Mgr... Customer Support....

7. PRODUCT LINE
A different type of “development”
Strategy & Tactics
ROI
Industry Trends

8. MISUNDERSTANDINGS
Life Cycle
Product Management ≠ Project Management
Product Management ≠ Software Management
Product Management should come first!
Content is King!

9. STRATEGY & TACTICS
Product Management requires
“...no matter how agile
Brainstorming Development is, you’ll never
build a successful product if the
Financial Analysis work being done isn’t
aligned to the company strategy
and market needs.”
Focus Groups Pragmatic Marketing
Business Plan
Market Analysis

10. KNOW YOUR CUSTOMERS
Personas - If it’s about the customer.
1. Round 1: 24-36 1:1 Interviews based on
demographics of target, and subsequent analysis
2. Round 2: 5-7 Targeted Interviews per Persona
3. Socialization & Usage: Introduce the Personas
4. Keep in touch and update the Personas.

11. UNDERSTAND PRODUCT UX
Personas - If it’s about the Product Design.
Surveys
Web Analytics
User Experience
Contextual Interview
Pricing & Placement

12. BOUNDARIES V. SILOS
Developers need to understand Biz Case, Personas,
etc.
Product Management needs to actively participate in
Development/Testing.
Collaboration
Communication
Boundaries

13. THE AGILE BA
Communication in a Collaborative Environment
Not Part of the Agile Team
Part of the Customer Team
Collaborates, as necessary,
assisting the PO, when PO
does not have the skills
Acceptance Test Driven Design
Cartoon used with expressed permission of
ModernAnalyst.com, the premier online community
for business analysts.

14. THE BUSINESS ANALYST
Communication in a Collaborative Environment
Modeling: Capturing the complex conversations
around Acceptance Criteria.
Simulations: User Experience analysis using
prototypes prior to full development to determine if
the vision is the right thing.
Identifying the Right Thing
Before bringing it to the Technical Agile Team!!

15. TWO TEAMS
- DEFINITION OF TERMS
Scrum Master
Agile BA
Product Owner
Customer Team Agile Team (technical)
aka 3 Roles
Stakeholders Cross Functional
Steering Committee
The Business
Product Management

16. STAKEHOLDERS
Characteristics
Agile BA Cross Functional
Big View
SME detail
Collaborative
LEAN approach
Product Owner
Customer Team The What & The Why

17. STAKEHOLDERS
Agile BA Responsibilities
ROI
Market Research
Industry Changes
Project Charter
Persona Development
Product Owner Collaborating with the PO
Authoring User Stories
Providing Feedback to Tech Team
Backlog Grooming
UAT
Customer Team The What & The Why

18. PARADIGMS
Some of this is just textbook Agile
Deciding the right thing to build and the RTM
strategy doesn't belong on the Agile Team's plate.
All the Agile Team should do is build what they're
told to build, how they
decide is best.

19. PARADIGMS & ECOSYSTEMS
Agile is more than a bag of tips & tricks
Systemic approaches fail if parts of the system are
ignored.
Child’s Song Fishbone Problem Analysis

20. SYSTEMS DIAGRAM
Systems Thinking: Senege, Peter. Fifth Discipline. 1990.
Every group has its own story & its own ecosystem.
Execs
Marketing
Product Agile Team
Rivals Backlog Envir
Mgmt Process
Industry

21. NAMES ARE POWERFUL WORDS
Conclusion:
Agile Technical Team
+ Agile Product Team
Agile Project Team
Scale agility within the organization by calling out the
Product Team by name and by articulating their unique
role & multiple responsibilities.