Story maps easily represent releases of features that help users accomplish goals. Story maps help show what features should be delivered to create a compelling software experience. Agile projects commonly use task backlogs to manage scope and burn charts to track velocity and predict delivery dates. Simple backlogs and burn charts do not effectively show intermediate accomplishments of value. Expectations outside of the core product team can be more effectively managed by discussing functionality and delivery dates represented in a story map. Coordinating an integrated task backlog (both design centric and code centric tasks) with a story map allows for better scope management and team skills management aimed at hitting intermediate milestones. Disclaimer - This talk outlines thoughts on process and cites actual project examples utilizing several software and paper tools. Shawn is not going to reveal a "silver bullet" software tool.

1. Managing balanced
team projects
Story map and backlog coordination
balanced team conference
9/24/11
#balconf
shawn.crowley@atomicobject.com
Monday, September 26, 2011

2. Project Management
The process of dealing with
or controlling things or people.
The responsibility for and control
of a company or similar organization.
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 2
Monday, September 26, 2011

3. Value from resources
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 3
Monday, September 26, 2011

4. Bring the love
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 4
Monday, September 26, 2011

5. Happy teams
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 5
Monday, September 26, 2011

6. Atomic Context
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 6
Monday, September 26, 2011

7. Poly-skilled
co-located
self-managing
teams of makers
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 7
Monday, September 26, 2011

8. No
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 8
Monday, September 26, 2011

9. No
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 9
Monday, September 26, 2011

10. Yes
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 10
Monday, September 26, 2011

11. Yes
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 11
Monday, September 26, 2011

12. Product Definition
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 12
Monday, September 26, 2011

13. Direction and definition
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 13
Monday, September 26, 2011

14. Iterations
Rituals
PM Tools
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 14
Monday, September 26, 2011

15. Populate backlog iterations
as they occur.
Team members work on tasks
aligned with “profession.”
Track history to predict the future.
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 15
Monday, September 26, 2011

16. 500
417
333
Points
250
167
83 Burn Charts
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Iterations
Total Points in Project Total Points Completed Total points line
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 16
Monday, September 26, 2011

17. Task Backlog
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 17
Monday, September 26, 2011

18. Scope Management
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 18
Monday, September 26, 2011

19. Drift
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 19
Monday, September 26, 2011

20. Hitting targets
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 20
Monday, September 26, 2011

21. 500
417
333 Scope added
Points
250
167
83
Velocity decrease
0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Iterations
Total Points in Project Total Points Completed Total points line
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 21
Monday, September 26, 2011

22. Task Assignments
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 22
Monday, September 26, 2011

23. Strategy
Scenarios
Sketching
Planning
Hi-fidelity Design Coding
Prototypes
IA & IxD Patterns
Markup
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 23
Monday, September 26, 2011

24. Who ?
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 24
Monday, September 26, 2011

25. Intermediate goals
help manage
scope
timing of execution
task assignments
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 25
Monday, September 26, 2011

26. @atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 26
Monday, September 26, 2011

27. Additional Tools
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 27
Monday, September 26, 2011

28. Kanban
Story Map
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 28
Monday, September 26, 2011

29. Kanban
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 29
Monday, September 26, 2011

30. X: IxD, IA (sketching)
V: VizD
M: Markup
C: Code
T: Exploratory Testing
P: Polish?
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 30
Monday, September 26, 2011

31. Staged Backlog
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 31
Monday, September 26, 2011

32. Story map
Kanban
2-X
8-V
4-M
2-M
8-C
2-C
8-C
Backlog
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 32
Monday, September 26, 2011

33. Takeaways
Represent product in story map.
Prioritize development of story map tasks
in kanban chart.
Stage backlog to set intermediate goals.
Use goals to manage assignments, scope
changes, and execution timing.
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 33
Monday, September 26, 2011

34. Before After
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 34
Monday, September 26, 2011

35. References
Story maps
http://www.agileproductdesign.com/blog/the_new_backlog.html
http://www.agileproductdesign.com/writing/finding_the_forest.pdf
Picking tasks and planning kanban
Anders Ramsay - UX Tracer Bullet, Agile UX retreat December 2010
Intermediate goals
http://alistair.cockburn.us/Earned-value+and+burn+charts
Staging backlogs
Desirée Sy - putting UX on an agile planning board, Agile UX retreat December 2010
@atomicobject http://spin.atomicobject.com 35
Monday, September 26, 2011

36. http://spin.atomicobject.com
@atomicobject
shawn.crowley@atomicobject.com
616 776 6020x731
@shawncrowley
Monday, September 26, 2011