Dude where's my backlog?

Dude, where’s my backlog?!

Robin Dymond CST

Who am I?
 Robin Dymond, CST
 Owner of U.S. based Innovel LLC
 Gold sponsor for Agile E.E. 
 20 years in software development
 8 yrs doing Scrum + XP,5 yrs applyingLean
 Agile Program Coach in the largest Agile
transition in Banking
 Trained 800+ people in Scrum in Ukraine
 Clients in Europe, US, Canada, Brazil

10-08-2010 ©2010Innovel LLC. All rights reserved www.innovel.net

Have you ever seen a backlog
that looks like this?


How about this backlog?


Is your Product Owner spending
quality time with your team?


Whatcanyou do about this?


Our algorithm guy has this
great idea! Let’s build it!


Let’s write a defect
trackerwith [insert new technology here]!


What do you really want?


Create a great product
that customers love?


Techniques to get to a great
Product Backlog

10-08-2010 ©2010Innovel LLC. All rights reserved www.innovel.net © 2008, 2009,
2010 Innovel
LLC, Rights
Reserved.
www.innovel.net
11
11

Forget the Backlog for a
moment…
 Lets focus on the system that creates
the backlog:
 People
 Managing PO work
 Defining PO work


Do you have the right
person as PO?
People over process


Key Product Owner
Attributes
 A subject matter expert
 Knowledgeable about the business
 Has decision making authority
 Has lots of time for the team
 Good communicator
 Uses the system being developed
 Facilitates stakeholder input
 Listens to the team
 Understands the key role of a Product Owner in Scrum
 Helps the team improve

Get the right person for
the job


ManagingPOwork


Pulling features from
the Backlog
Ready for Priority
next iteration
Team
Next 2-3 Iterations,
Less defined

Epic Story

A group of stories that
Comprise a capability

Epic Story


Backlog Grooming
Priority
PO and Team

PO and Team or Analyst

PO and other POs


Add sprint preplanning with
Team and PO to Scrum
Product Backlog

Backlog Review meeting
Product
Backlog
Product
Backlog

NO SURPRISES

Goal: xyz

Sprint 1
Backlog

Sprint1 Sprint 2

Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Repeat

Iteration- Daily Demo
planning Standup Retrospective
meeting


Define a “ready to develop”
state for User stories to enter
sprint planning.


Reduce the PO Work in
Progress (WIP)
 How much stuff is the P.O. working on?
 What other projects do they have?
 What does sales and marketing demand for
road maps and future plans?
 How do they interact with stakeholders?
 Are there regular facilitated stakeholder
meetings to work on the backlog?


Use a personal kanbanto
manage P.O. WIP


Onlinekanbanfor off site
P.O.


Map the Value Stream

 Often all the work done by Product
Owners is not clear
 Mapping the value stream can reveal
bottlenecks for example, approvals


Making a process flow

More workin process drives a longer cycle time.
Putting more work in process does not increase throughput or efficiency.

Work in process (WIP), cycle time and production completion rate
are all interrelated:

WIP = Rate x Cycle time thus Cycle time = WIP / Rate

Agile Scrum
Lean

Teams have a capacity, so do
Product Owners
 How much can 7 people do in 2 weeks?
 How about the next 2 weeks and the next 2
weeks…?
 A team’s velocity is the amount of working
tested software completed every Iteration.
Product
Backlog

 How much capacity does the PO have?
 With a value stream map and a kanban you
can start to understand PO capacity.

Product Ownership: scope
creation or scope management?


Ensuring what gets built
delivers value


Product Management with Fast
Feedback
Revise product
direction based
on market feedback
Plan product Release every Sprint Check
increments, Market
Market tests response


Do PO’s evaluate if what
was built is being used?


Automate market
feedback, make it
transparent


Prioritization Thinking
Tools

Purpose Alignment Model
 Simple set of criteria
 Creates a decision filter that should be
dispersed throughout the company
 Great scope cutter!

 * Stand back and Deliver, Pixton et. al.


Purpose Alignment Model

High

Partner Differentiating
Market differentiating
Low

Who Cares Parity

Low High

Mission critical

Would you put that project or
capability on a billboard?


A Framework for Product
Ownership
Backlog &
Business Business Categorize
Prioritize Release
Case Drivers Capabilities
Plan

Strategic planning to
Optimize for Return on Investment


The Business Case
Business Case
Undertaking a project needs to make
economic sense. The return required to
achieve a tangible output must justify
the investment made.
Like all other things Agile, the business
case is a living document that will
adjust as the situation changes.

Product Owner Responsibilities
Craft and update the business case
 Ensure all parties are continually aware of overarching goals
 Ensure alignment of project to corporate strategic goals


Writing the Business Case
The effort to create a business
case should be appropriate to the
level of investment and the
perceived risk.

Often there is a standard of
business case practices within a
company.

Don’t fall into the trap of analysis paralysis
 If you go beyond two weeks of effort for consider if you
have spent enough time?
 Agile enables you to stop projects early if the results are
not as expected.


Product Ownership
Framework
Backlog &
Prioritize Release
Plan
Business case
 Examine the business case, looking for key elements of value
creation.
 Look for opportunities to deliver value incrementally

Find the Business Drivers
 Find the categories of value creation “Why do this project”,
“What kind of value are we creating and for whom”, “What do I
really care about”, “What do our customers really care about”?


Business
Business Drivers Drivers

Prioritize Business Drivers
 With input from your stakeholders, prioritize the
business drivers
 Don’t allow everything to be a number one priority

Example Business Drivers:

Driver 1. Be first to market
Driver 2. Increase revenue through convenience
Driver 3. Delight the customer to increase usage


Framework #2

Backlog &
Prioritize Release
Plan

Create and Categorize capabilities
 Create high level capabilities based on customer value, with
the help from the business. User stories provide a good
approach.
 Sort the capabilities into which business driver they support.
 Some capabilities may support more than one driver, pick the
most relevant driver.

41

Framework #3

Backlog &
Prioritize Release
Plan

Create Product Backlog and Release plan
 Use your prioritized business drivers and list of capabilities to
build the product backlog.
 Don’t forget to consider items that require long lead times
and infrastructure necessary to support the creation of value
 Identify points where you think there has been enough value
created to release capabilities to production


Strategic vs Tactical
 Business Case, Business Drivers, and High Level
Capabilities are strategic

 Product Backlogs are tactical, incorporating release
planning, estimates, and detailed User Stories.

 Great Product Ownership uses tactics of product
backlog management to achieve strategic goals.

 Features are not the point. Customer and business
value creation and value validation is the purpose.

Your Product Owner needs
a process too
 Scrum is silent on how product owners should
manage their work
 Product Owners feed the rest of the
development system and are a constraint
 Find ways to build and support effective work
processes for your POs.
 Define what “Ready for development” means
for user stories
 Use Lean and just in time ideas to eliminate
overworked POs

Questions?


Innovel LLC
Training and Consulting in
Scrum XP Agile Lean Kanban
GOLD SPONSOR OF
AGILE E.E.
Robin Dymond, CST
rdymond@innovel.net
www.innovel.net
www.scrumtraining.com
Americas: (804) 239-4329
Europe: +32 489 674 366

Adding Just in Time User Interface
design with Paper Prototyping

47

How to create a paper
prototype?
 Remember being a kid?
 Use materials at hand - post-it
notes, paper, sketches, white boards, tape
 Can also print (or make) blank UI widgets
such as text boxes, drop down
menus, displays, etc.
 Clicking a button should change the
prototype, take the user to a new
prototypedscreen, pop up, etc.


Building Tips
 Keep the prototype flexible, allow change from
stakeholders - it is paper!
 Focus on the hard parts, Flows, interaction
design, information layout
 DON’T make it pretty
 Do it with your team for collaboration and learning.

 UI elements should
be movable so you
can easily re-layout
the screen.

Fast and useful usability
testing
 Outsourced usability testing is expensive to hire, takes
time, and is often too late in the project to be useful
 Take an Agile approach with iterative in house testing.
 A knowledgeable facilitator and observer are required
(training for staff)
 Morae (PC based test recording tool) for capturing
usability testing in UIs
 Setup: Laptop, web cam, network, remote PC for
observation of testing


Dude where's my backlog?

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Editor's Notes