Warning! You can still build the wrong product using agile. In Eric Ries’ book The Lean Startup, he poses the question: What if we found ourselves building something that nobody wanted? In that case, what would it matter if we did it on time and on budget? We often assume the Product Owner is smart enough to define the right product. But what if we are wrong? Michael Hall shares lean startup principles and how they can be applied to ensure that the product we are building is righteous. Learn new agile concepts such as hypothesis-driven project vision, knowledge broker personas, learning maps, minimum learning product, experiment backlogs, experiment test iterations, validated learning, and pivot/persevere decisions. Case studies and Michael’s first-hand product experience emphasize the learning points. New and mature agilistas alike will leave the session armed with Lean Startup agile techniques that can be applied immediately on their agile projects.
Applying Lean Startup Principles to Agile ProjectsSynerzip
This presentation covers the main Lean Startup principles and how they can be applied on an Agile project in order to insure that the product we are building is righteous. Learn new Agile concepts such as hypothesis-driven project vision, knowledge broker personas, learning maps, minimum learning product (MLP), experiment backlogs, experiment test iterations, validated learning, pivot/persevere decisions, and innovation accounting.
Presenter: Michael Hall, CEO and Founder of Three Beacons.
Read more at https://www.synerzip.com/webinar/applying-lean-startup-principles-to-agile-projects-webinar/
My invited talk at TCS AgileCafe, Bangalore on Sep 29. In this talk, I explore how large #enterprises are creating #innovative products using #leanstartups
Essential Tools for Product Managers and Marketers (Oct 2011)Jesse Gant
A refresh of the tools and resources (research/analysis, social monitoring, A/B testing, wireframing, SEO/SEM, etc.) that every Product Manager and Marketer should use or at least know about.
Lean Startup for Healthcare: Workshop at Healthbox Orthogonal
A workshop on how the Lean Startup approach to innovation applies in a healthcare setting, delivered by Pathfinder Software CEO Bernhard Kappe to the inaugural class at the Healthbox startup accelerator
Applying Lean Startup Principles to Agile ProjectsSynerzip
This presentation covers the main Lean Startup principles and how they can be applied on an Agile project in order to insure that the product we are building is righteous. Learn new Agile concepts such as hypothesis-driven project vision, knowledge broker personas, learning maps, minimum learning product (MLP), experiment backlogs, experiment test iterations, validated learning, pivot/persevere decisions, and innovation accounting.
Presenter: Michael Hall, CEO and Founder of Three Beacons.
Read more at https://www.synerzip.com/webinar/applying-lean-startup-principles-to-agile-projects-webinar/
My invited talk at TCS AgileCafe, Bangalore on Sep 29. In this talk, I explore how large #enterprises are creating #innovative products using #leanstartups
Essential Tools for Product Managers and Marketers (Oct 2011)Jesse Gant
A refresh of the tools and resources (research/analysis, social monitoring, A/B testing, wireframing, SEO/SEM, etc.) that every Product Manager and Marketer should use or at least know about.
Lean Startup for Healthcare: Workshop at Healthbox Orthogonal
A workshop on how the Lean Startup approach to innovation applies in a healthcare setting, delivered by Pathfinder Software CEO Bernhard Kappe to the inaugural class at the Healthbox startup accelerator
Some years ago, Eric Ries, Steve Blank and others initiated The Lean Startup movement. The Lean Startup is a movement, an inspiration, a set of principles and practices that any entrepreneur initiating a startup would be well advised to follow.
Projecting myself into it, I think that if I had read Ries' book before, or even better Blank's book, I would maybe own my own company today, around AirXCell or another product, instead of being disgusted and honestly not considering it for the near future.
In addition to giving a pretty important set of principles when it comes to creating and running a startup, The Lean Startup also implies an extended set of Engineering practices, especially software engineering practices.
Introduction to Lean Startup leading up to a 3-hour workshop. Presented by me at EFYI (European Forum for Young Innovators) 2016, conference organized by Poland Innovative (Polska Innowacyjna).
Established businesses often have trouble running fast on new innovation initiatives. How can they overcome the innovator's dilemma? This talk looks at how intrapreneurs working on cutting edge programs might anticipate and overcome challenges to bring their idea, with all its risks and unknowns, to fruition in an organization that is optimized for operational excellence on existing programs.
The whys, hows and whats of lean startup. 2 years of learning condensed into a 2-hour class.
Watch the recording of this talk at https://youtu.be/Un9O4mpR5k0
SharePoint and Lean Development: Critical Factors for Accelerating Time to Va...Dave Healey
From the lean enterprise to the lean startup, organizations are increasingly turning to lean production practices to create and preserve value with less work. SharePoint’s broad deployment, mature functional capabilities and robust extensibility make it a natural candidate for lean development scenarios, yet realizing the promise of the platform is not without risk.
This session covers the basics of lean production and explores the risks and possibilities in lean development with SharePoint. Through real-world case studies we discuss the seven most important factors for accelerating time-to-value across
- Economic,
- Cultural, and
- Engineering dimensions.
What is Agile & Agile Project Management?. Introduction to Plan-based vs value-driven development; Scrum framework and roles and ceremonies; self-organised team, agile values. and leadership
We explain the history of our agile organization with a focus on the latest round of evolution of our Product and Engineering organization, moving from business-oriented feature teams to mission teams.
Teaching Machines to Fish -- How eBay Improves ItselfRandy Shoup
eBay Distinguished Architect Randy Shoup describes eBay's use of machine learning and classification techniques to continually improve the quality of its search results and its overall site experience
Continuous Integration as a Development Team’s Way of LifeTechWell
Continuous integration (CI) is a buzzword in software development today. We know it means “run lots of builds,” but having a continuous integration pipeline opens up opportunities well beyond making sure your team's code compiles. What if this pipeline could improve everything from the quality of code reviews to how often and safely you deploy to production and how you monitor your product in the wild? What if CI could provide insights into how automated tests are performing and how to improve them? Melissa Benua describes how to set up a basic CI infrastructure and then transform it into a way of life for development and test teams. Using free or nearly free tools, Melissa walks through a practical approach to making sure your code works—all the time and at every stage of the release train. Come away with practical advice for creating builds and running automation on the fly without spending hundreds of hours or thousands of dollars.
Developing a Rugged DevOps Approach to Cloud SecurityTechWell
Your operational tools deliver continuous monitoring and alerting for applications deployed in the cloud. So why doesn’t your security suite do the same? Although no single path to a secure DevOps approach works for every organization, Tim Prendergast offers a set of key principles and techniques that have distinct advantages for delivering safe and secure products in the cloud. Security can no longer be thought of as a separate step in a product’s launch and must be integrated into the overall processes of continuous development and deployment. Implementing continuous security monitoring is non-negotiable. Tim shares strategies to better understand your data’s value to an attacker, how to better define the battlefield to your own advantage, how to identify potential DevOps security allies within the organization, why it is time to embrace continuous security cycles, and why automating security acceptance tests as part of the QA process helps achieve a more agile security posture.
Some years ago, Eric Ries, Steve Blank and others initiated The Lean Startup movement. The Lean Startup is a movement, an inspiration, a set of principles and practices that any entrepreneur initiating a startup would be well advised to follow.
Projecting myself into it, I think that if I had read Ries' book before, or even better Blank's book, I would maybe own my own company today, around AirXCell or another product, instead of being disgusted and honestly not considering it for the near future.
In addition to giving a pretty important set of principles when it comes to creating and running a startup, The Lean Startup also implies an extended set of Engineering practices, especially software engineering practices.
Introduction to Lean Startup leading up to a 3-hour workshop. Presented by me at EFYI (European Forum for Young Innovators) 2016, conference organized by Poland Innovative (Polska Innowacyjna).
Established businesses often have trouble running fast on new innovation initiatives. How can they overcome the innovator's dilemma? This talk looks at how intrapreneurs working on cutting edge programs might anticipate and overcome challenges to bring their idea, with all its risks and unknowns, to fruition in an organization that is optimized for operational excellence on existing programs.
The whys, hows and whats of lean startup. 2 years of learning condensed into a 2-hour class.
Watch the recording of this talk at https://youtu.be/Un9O4mpR5k0
SharePoint and Lean Development: Critical Factors for Accelerating Time to Va...Dave Healey
From the lean enterprise to the lean startup, organizations are increasingly turning to lean production practices to create and preserve value with less work. SharePoint’s broad deployment, mature functional capabilities and robust extensibility make it a natural candidate for lean development scenarios, yet realizing the promise of the platform is not without risk.
This session covers the basics of lean production and explores the risks and possibilities in lean development with SharePoint. Through real-world case studies we discuss the seven most important factors for accelerating time-to-value across
- Economic,
- Cultural, and
- Engineering dimensions.
What is Agile & Agile Project Management?. Introduction to Plan-based vs value-driven development; Scrum framework and roles and ceremonies; self-organised team, agile values. and leadership
We explain the history of our agile organization with a focus on the latest round of evolution of our Product and Engineering organization, moving from business-oriented feature teams to mission teams.
Teaching Machines to Fish -- How eBay Improves ItselfRandy Shoup
eBay Distinguished Architect Randy Shoup describes eBay's use of machine learning and classification techniques to continually improve the quality of its search results and its overall site experience
Continuous Integration as a Development Team’s Way of LifeTechWell
Continuous integration (CI) is a buzzword in software development today. We know it means “run lots of builds,” but having a continuous integration pipeline opens up opportunities well beyond making sure your team's code compiles. What if this pipeline could improve everything from the quality of code reviews to how often and safely you deploy to production and how you monitor your product in the wild? What if CI could provide insights into how automated tests are performing and how to improve them? Melissa Benua describes how to set up a basic CI infrastructure and then transform it into a way of life for development and test teams. Using free or nearly free tools, Melissa walks through a practical approach to making sure your code works—all the time and at every stage of the release train. Come away with practical advice for creating builds and running automation on the fly without spending hundreds of hours or thousands of dollars.
Developing a Rugged DevOps Approach to Cloud SecurityTechWell
Your operational tools deliver continuous monitoring and alerting for applications deployed in the cloud. So why doesn’t your security suite do the same? Although no single path to a secure DevOps approach works for every organization, Tim Prendergast offers a set of key principles and techniques that have distinct advantages for delivering safe and secure products in the cloud. Security can no longer be thought of as a separate step in a product’s launch and must be integrated into the overall processes of continuous development and deployment. Implementing continuous security monitoring is non-negotiable. Tim shares strategies to better understand your data’s value to an attacker, how to better define the battlefield to your own advantage, how to identify potential DevOps security allies within the organization, why it is time to embrace continuous security cycles, and why automating security acceptance tests as part of the QA process helps achieve a more agile security posture.
From Unclear and Unrealistic Requirements to Achievable User StoriesTechWell
"What do you want the system to do?" can be a loaded question for agile teams. Ideally, the product owner gives you a product backlog with fully groomed user stories prioritized by business value, ready for team discussion and estimation. Instead, you may have the “big picture” product owner who can describe high level requirements but struggles to provide clear direction on specific system behavior, or the “aspiring developer” product owner who is more than happy to give you exact system implementation in intricate technical detail. You may have the “kid in a candy shop” product owner who wants everything under the sun as the highest priority or the “see-saw” product owner who constantly changes the priority of the requirements. Join Jamie Lynn Cooke for interactive demonstrations of twelve proven techniques for working with all these product owner types to understand what is really driving their requirements, to move them toward business value-driven prioritization, and to turn their abstract, impractical, or technically-loaded requirements into relevant and realistic invest-compliant user stories.
Testing in a Super-Agile Software Development EnvironmentTechWell
Channel 4 broadcasting company in Finland provides live streams of sporting events on the Internet (Ruutu.fi). The software development is done by agile principles but even more straightforward and quicker than normal agile projects. Tomi Kaleva says they have changed the entire production environment and renewed all the mobile apps in the past year. As a result, the normal agile development speed wasn’t enough. The fast software development cycle makes software testing challenging as there isn’t sufficient time for test planning and testing execution. The solution was to precisely prioritize the testing, mostly ad hoc without test planning in advance. It was critical that the whole development team participate in the testing and that the software developers be ready to fix bugs. Since some tests were done by customers after the software was released to production, it was crucial to listen to customers’ feedback and to react quickly to repair problems. Super-agile is an effective process to quickly release software to market but the high risk of poor quality must be addressed.
You Don't Have All the Answers: So Stop Giving Advice and Start Asking QuestionsTechWell
Many of us are raised to recognize the value of experts. When we work in a technical arena, seeing our own value as experts is re-enforced. We often are rewarded or promoted based on our knowledge. Our tendency is to want to solve problems by giving our colleagues, teams, and mentees sound advice. Judith Mills says this approach is often counterproductive because, in doing this, we take ownership of the problem. Rather than allowing them to solve their own problems, we can thwart their growth and, in the process, become a bottleneck. Learn the benefits and techniques (and when to use them) for transferring responsibility to the person or teams with the problem. Explore how to use questions to empower others to solve their problems by helping them walk through the situation and recognize the major hurdles. Join Judith to discover when we should allow them to work it out and when we should help solve the problem directly.
IoT and Embedded Testing: A Roku Case StudyTechWell
With big hitters like Time Warner and HBO selectively testing Roku releases, testing these little boxes of joy is becoming more of a necessity in the IoT tester’s playbook. Join Rick Faulise as he shares the secrets of testing on a Roku device including how to get into the Roku interface and make it respond to your commands, how to select a broadcast environment for testing, and how to measure streaming performance. Take your IoT testing to the next level by understanding what special types of testing are unique to the Roku and other important considerations to keep in mind as you journey through the Brightscript SDK and Developer program, Telnet command prompts, and jailbreaking/hacking the Roku OS. Rick presents examples of testing on Roku devices and discusses how to decide what to test and in what order to test it. Take away two handouts: 1] how to jailbreak your Roku device, and 2] a comparison and contrast of testing on a Roku box, a Chromecast device, and an Amazon Fire TV stick.
Become an Influential Tester: Learn How to Be HeardTechWell
As a tester, are you frustrated that no one listens to you? Are you finding bugs and having them ignored? Are you worried that the development process and product quality aren’t as good as they should be? Jane Fraser shares ways to help you be heard―ways to position yourself as a leader within your organization, ways to increase your influence, and ways to report bugs to get them fixed. In this interactive session, Jane leads you to a better understanding of how to be heard in your organization. Learn how to tailor your defect reports depending on who makes the decisions and their area of focus—customer, budget, or design. These details help you determine how to position your defect for action. Through real life examples, Jane shows you how to become a more influential tester.
Testers in Agile Teams—Isolation or Collaboration?TechWell
What exactly are testers doing as organizations evolve from waterfall lifecycles to iterative, incremental agile approaches? Agile transitions, rather than fostering collaboration, often lead to isolation, role confusion, and fear. Many testers are left out in the cold. Agile testers face existential challenges: Is it enough that programmers test their own code? Must testers become programming experts? Do we still need business analysts or subject matter experts? Test evangelist Rob Sabourin explores an exciting vision for testers and demonstrates how they can take a role in acting as guiding lights to the entire team. Rob shares real-life examples of testers becoming trusted advisors and confidants to product owners, acting as customer advocates and guardians of the user experience. He explains how testers can drive critical design decisions early, using risk models to expose emergent architectures. Testing skills, knowledge, and wisdom apply in a plethora of circumstances so testers can take the driver’s seat—in every step of the agile transition.
Performance Testing in Agile and DevOps EnvironmentsTechWell
As organizations embrace agile and DevOps delivery models, non-functional performance testing becomes a challenge. While functional validation continues to mature in Agile, many organizations are either struggling to integrate application performance into the delivery model or are addressing performance through an end of sprint hardening approach. Join Syed Hossain as he explores the challenges of performance testing in agile and DevOps environments. Learn proven approaches to performance testing—staggered sprints, incremental testing, and targeted sprints. Discover how to apply existing or new performance testing tools— StormRunner Load, Neotys, SOASTA, HP Mobile Center, Perfecto Mobile—that reduce the need for heavy scripting and dramatically cut down on test preparation time. This allows you to focus on the most important tasks at hand—validating, measuring, and optimizing application performance. Leave with new ideas and proven approaches for completing performance testing in agile and DevOps environments.
Better Together: Group Exploratory TestingTechWell
Jeff Abshoff faced a most difficult challenge in 2015. His team size tripled, with testers of varying skill levels spread across six sites worldwide. The product was moving to a more frequent release cycle, was of poor quality, and had multiple key stakeholders. Features were incomplete, defects were not discovered until late in the cycle, and downstream stability and feature integration problems were common. Join Jeff as he shares his experience with Group Exploratory Testing, and discusses the positive impact this approach has had on his team and the ANSYS product. Jeff gives practical details on the tools used (web collaboration and a virtual lab approach) and the people involved (developers, product managers, writers, and testers). Jeff explains the many benefits that Group Exploratory Testing offers—improved collaboration, cross-team training, earlier and faster feedback, and better product quality.
Did you know that you can develop awesome products with zero product specifications ? We have recently quantified the gains for a product we built using Lean Startup and MVP approach and were pleasantly surprised to find that we could quantify minimum 47% gain in time-to-market, 32% cost savings, 55% improvement in product quality and 40% gain in business value as compared to traditional product development methods.
Products and Value: An Agile Perspective BY Matt Nudelmann (GUEST PRESENTER)Samuel Chin, PMP, CSM
You may have heard of Agile methodology before, especially in the context of web development ... but can we apply Agile principles to our study of process?
In this session, guest presenter Matt Nudelman explains how to understand some core elements of process, Product and Value, from an Agile point of view. He covers a range of topics including: the difference between a product and a project, Agile project management, the 80/20 rule, what an MVP is, and defining value using the Agile framework.
We also discussed how these principles apply to the process work we've been doing, and what we can take away for practical application.
----
Matt Nudelman, Scrum Master and Project Manager, began working in digital sometime before the last Dot Com boom, and has seen the rise of development methodologies coincide with his interest in efficient work practices. He has managed projects for Morgan Stanley, the New York Times, advertising agencies, and lots of companies you never heard of. Currently, Matt works with teams at Viacom to produce great software and to maximize their Agile effectiveness.
Slides from the "Much ado about Agile", Agile Vancouver Conference 2015. This talk is around examples of MVP on small startups and Enterprise level. What's the ultimate MVP?
There are some appropriate ways to deploy and implement IBM DevOps tools including Team Concert DOORs NG, Quality Manager, and the various Rational IDE's. However, there are many wrong ways to do it wrong. This presentation, from InterConnect 2016, focuses on trends that we have seen over the past few years that simply, don't work, and how to avoid the pitfalls.
Facebook, Netflix, Flickr, Etsy, LinkedIn, eSurance, Instagram and Salesforce.com; you know their names. As a consumer, you’ve probably used services provided by many of them. These are some of the “born on the web” companies of the last couple of decades that have helped pioneer new, web-based business models - and in the process become dominant players in their markets, or created new markets altogether. Call them the “Cool Kids”.
What you may not know, however, is that these companies are also strong adopters of a DevOps approach when it comes to software development and delivery. In this presentation we take a look at these companies to discern patterns related to how they have applied DevOps in the areas of Culture, Organization, Practices, Automation and Measurements.
Even if your company bears no resemblance at all to the Cool Kids, you can take away some important learnings from them as you look to apply DevOps to your own software initiatives.
This presentation is a result of a joint project executed by IBM strategists Bill Holtshouser and Carl Zetie, both of the Rational division in IBM Software Group, during the first half of 2014.
Defining a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)Eric Swenson
So you’ve begun the product development process. But there’s more to consider as a product manager. How do you know when you’ve built something sufficient as the initial product launch? How can you manage to continually iterate improvements to that product, once it’s been launched? Session Two addresses the challenge of delivering functionality with integrity!
Similar to Applying Lean Startup Principles to Agile Projects (20)
Do you ever feel you have lost confidence in your own abilities? Why does this happen? Isabel Evans spends a lot of time painting. Someone once commented, “Why are you doing this, when you are not very good at it?” And gradually she stopped drawing and painting, after being intimidated by a conventional vision of what good art should look like. At the same time, she experienced a parallel loss of confidence in her professional abilities. Attempting creative pursuits like drawing and painting is essential to cognitive, emotional, creative abilities and she began to understand the correlation between her creative activities and her confidence. Making errors, being wrong, failing – that is a generous gift we receive when we practice outside our skill level. By staying in a comfort zone and repeating successes, we stagnate. As Isabel started to create again she thought “I don’t feel good at it, I do feel good doing it” The difference was that she was learning, having ideas and the act of re-engaging with failure, together with the comradeship of friends and colleagues, including at Women Who Test, Isabel has regained her confidence in her professional abilities, and been able to reboot her career and joy. Join Isabel to share a journey from self-perceived failure, to recovery and renewed learning.
Instill a DevOps Testing Culture in Your Team and Organization TechWell
The DevOps movement is here. Companies across many industries are breaking down siloed IT departments and federating them into product development teams. Testing and its practices are at the heart of these changes. Traditionally, IT organizations have been staffed with mostly manual testers and a limited number of automation and performance engineers. To keep pace with development in the new “you build it, you own it” environment, testing teams and individuals must develop new technical skills and even embrace coding to stay relevant and add greater value to the business. DevOps really starts with testing. Join Adam Auerbach as he explains what DevOps is and how it relates to testing. He describes how testing must change from top to bottom and how to access your own environment to identify improvement opportunities. Adam dives into practices like service virtualization, test data management, and continuous testing so you can understand where you are now and identify steps needed to instill a DevOps testing culture in your team and organization.
Test Design for Fully Automated Build ArchitectureTechWell
Imagine this … As soon as any developed functionality is submitted into the code repository, it is automatically subjected to the appropriate battery of tests and then released straight into production. Setting up the pipeline capable of doing just that is becoming more and more common and something you need to know about. But most organizations hit the same stumbling block—just what IS the appropriate battery of tests? Automated build architectures don't always lend themselves well to the traditional stages of testing. In this hands-on tutorial, Melissa Benua introduces you to key test design principles—applicable to organizations both large and small—that allow you to take full advantage of the pipeline's capabilities without introducing unnecessary bottlenecks. Learn how to make highly reliable tests that run fast and preserve just enough information to let testers and developers determine exactly what went wrong and how to reproduce the error locally. Explore ways to reduce overlap while still maintaining adequate test coverage. Take back ideas about which test areas could benefit from being combined into a single suite and which areas could benefit most from being broken out altogether.
System-Level Test Automation: Ensuring a Good StartTechWell
Many organizations invest a lot of effort in test automation at the system level but then have serious problems later on. As a leader, how can you ensure that your new automation efforts will get off to a good start? What can you do to ensure that your automation work provides continuing value? This tutorial covers both “theory” and “practice”. Dot Graham explains the critical issues for getting a good start, and Chris Loder describes his experiences in getting good automation started at a number of companies. The tutorial covers the most important management issues you must address for test automation success, particularly when you are new to automation, and how to choose the best approaches for your organization—no matter which automation tools you use. Focusing on system level testing, Dot and Chris explain how automation affects staffing, who should be responsible for which automation tasks, how managers can best support automation efforts to promote success, what you can realistically expect in benefits and how to report them. They explain—for non-techies—the key technical issues that can make or break your automation effort. Come away with your own clarified automation objectives, and a draft test automation strategy to use to plan your own system-level test automation.
Build Your Mobile App Quality and Test StrategyTechWell
Let’s build a mobile app quality and testing strategy together. Whether you have a web, hybrid, or native app, building a quality and testing strategy means (1) knowing what data and tools you have available to make agile decisions, (2) understanding your customers and your competitors, and (3) testing your app under real-world conditions. Jason Arbon guides you through the latest techniques, data, and tools to ensure the awesomeness of your mobile app quality and testing strategy. Leave this interactive session with a strategy for your very own app—or one you pretend to own. The information Jason shares is based on data from Appdiff’s next-gen mobile app testing platform, lessons from Applause/uTest’s crowd, text mining hundreds of millions of app store reviews, and in-depth discussions with top mobile app development teams.
Testing Transformation: The Art and Science for SuccessTechWell
Technologies, testing processes, and the role of the tester have evolved significantly in the past few years with the advent of agile, DevOps, and other new technologies. It is critical that we testing professionals evaluate ourselves and continue to add tangible value to our organizations. In your work, are you focused on the trivial or on real game changers? Jennifer Bonine describes critical elements that help you artfully blend people, process, and technology to create a synergistic relationship that adds value. Jennifer shares ideas on mastering politics, maneuvering core vs. context, and innovating your technology strategies and processes. She explores how new processes can be introduced in an organization, what the role of organizational culture is in determining the success of a project, and how you can know what tools will add value vs. simply adding overhead and complexity. Jennifer reviews critically needed tester skills and discusses a continual learning model to evolve your skills and stay relevant. This discussion can lead you to technologies, processes, and skills you can stake your career on.
We’ve all been there. We work incredibly hard to develop a feature and design tests based on written requirements. We build a detailed test plan that aligns the tests with the software and the documented business needs. And when we put the tests to the software, it all falls apart because the requirements were changed without informing everyone. Mary Thorn says help is at hand. Enter behavior-driven development (BDD), and Cucumber and SpecFlow, tools for running automated acceptance tests and facilitating BDD. Mary explores the nuances of Cucumber and SpecFlow, and shows you how to implement BDD and agile acceptance testing. By fostering collaboration for implementing active requirements via a common language and format, Cucumber and SpecFlow bridge the communication gap between business stakeholders and implementation teams. In this workshop, practice writing feature files with the best practices Mary has discovered over numerous implementations. If you experience developers not coding to requirements, testers not getting requirements updates, or customers who feel out of the loop and don’t get what they ask for, Mary has answers for you.
Develop WebDriver Automated Tests—and Keep Your SanityTechWell
Many teams go crazy because of brittle, high-maintenance automated test suites. Jim Holmes helps you understand how to create a flexible, maintainable, high-value suite of functional tests using Selenium WebDriver. Learn the basics of what to test, what not to test, and how to avoid overlapping with other types of testing. Jim includes both philosophical concepts and hands-on coding. Testers who haven't written code should not be intimidated! We'll pair you up to make sure you're successful. Learn to create practical tests dealing with advanced situations such as input validation, AJAX delays, and working with file downloads. Additionally, discover when you need to work together with developers to create a system that's more easily testable. This tutorial focuses primarily on automating web tests, but many of the same concepts can be applied to other UI environments. Demos and labs will be in C# and Java using WebDriver. Leave this tutorial having learned how to write high-value WebDriver tests—and stay sane while doing so.
DevOps is a cultural shift aimed at streamlining intergroup communication and improving operational efficiency for development and operations groups. Over time, inclusion of other IT groups under the DevOps umbrella has become the norm for many organizations. But even broadening the boundaries of DevOps, the conversation has been largely devoid of the business units’ place at the table. A common mistake organizations make while going through the DevOps transformation is drawing a line at the IT boundary. If that occurs, a larger, more inclusive silo within the organization is created, operating in an informational vacuum and causing operational inefficiency and goal misalignment. Sharing his experiences working on both sides of the fence, Leon Fayer describes the importance of including business units in order to align technology decisions with business goals. Leon discusses inclusion of business units in existing agile processes, benefits of cross-departmental monitoring, and a business-first approach to technology decisions.
Eliminate Cloud Waste with a Holistic DevOps StrategyTechWell
Chris Parlette maintains that renting infrastructure on demand is the most disruptive trend in IT in decades. In 2016, enterprises spent $23B on public cloud IaaS services. By 2020, that figure is expected to reach $65B. The public cloud is now used like a utility, and like any utility, there is waste. Who's responsible for optimizing the infrastructure and reducing wasted expenses? It’s DevOps. The excess expense, known as cloud waste, comprises several interrelated problems: services running when they don't need to be, improperly sized infrastructure, orphaned resources, and shadow IT. There are a few core tenets of DevOps—holistic thinking, no silos, rapid useful feedback, and automation—that can be applied to reducing your cloud waste. Join Chris to learn why you should include continuous cost optimization in your DevOps processes. Automate cost control, reduce your cloud expenses, and make your life easier.
Transform Test Organizations for the New World of DevOpsTechWell
With the recent emergence of DevOps across the industry, testing organizations are being challenged to transform themselves significantly within a short period of time to stay meaningful within their organizations. It’s not easy to plan and approach these changes considering the way testing organizations have remained structured for ages. These challenges start from foundational organizational structures and can cut across leadership influence, competencies, tools strategy, infrastructure, and other dimensions. Sumit Kumar shares his experience assisting various organizations to overcome these challenges using an organized DevOps enablement framework. The framework includes radical restructuring, turning the tools strategy upside down, a multidimensional workforce enablement supported by infrastructure changes, redeveloped collaborations models, and more. From his real world experiences Sumit shares tips for approaching this journey and explains the roadmap for testing organizations to transform themselves to lead the quality in DevOps.
The Fourth Constraint in Project Delivery—LeadershipTechWell
All too often, the triple constraints—time, cost, and quality—are bandied about as if they are the be-all, end-all. While they are important, leadership—the fourth and larger underpinning constraint—influences the first three. Statistics on project success and failure abound, and these measurements are usually taken against the triple constraints. According to the Project Management Institute, only 53 percent of projects are completed within budget, and only 49 percent are completed on time. If so many projects overrun budget and are late, we can’t really say, “Good, fast, or cheap—pick two.” Rob Burkett talks about leadership at every level of a team. He shares his insights and stories gleaned from his years of IT and project management experience. Rob speaks to some of the glaring difficulties in the workplace in general and some specifically related to IT delivery and project management. Leave with a clearer understanding of how to communicate with teams and team members, and gain a better understanding of how you can be a leader—up and down your organization.
Resolve the Contradiction of Specialists within Agile TeamsTechWell
As teams grow, organizations often draw a distinction between feature teams, which deliver the visible business value to the user, and component teams, which manage shared work. Steve Berczuk says that this distinction can help organizations be more productive and scale effectively, but he recognizes that not all shared work fits into this model. Some work is best handled by “specialists,” that is people with unique skills. Although teams composed entirely of T-shaped people is ideal, certain skills are hard to come by and are used irregularly across an organization. Since these specialists often need to work closely with teams, rather than working from their own backlog, they don’t fit into the component team model. The use of shared resources presents challenges to the agile planning model. Steve Berczuk shares how teams such as those providing infrastructure services and specialists can fit into a feature+component team model, and how variations such as embedding specialists in a scrum team can both present process challenges and add significant value to both the team and the larger organization.
Pin the Tail on the Metric: A Field-Tested Agile GameTechWell
Metrics don’t have to be a necessary evil. If done right, metrics can help guide us to make better forward-looking decisions, rather than being used for simply managing or monitoring. They can help us identify trade-offs between options for what to do next versus punitive or worse, purely managerial measures. Steve Martin won’t be giving the Top Ten List of field-tested metrics you should use. Instead, in this interactive mini-workshop, he leads you through the critical thinking necessary for you to determine what is right for you to measure. First, Steve explores why you want to measure something—whether it’s for a team, a portfolio, or even an agile transformation. Next, he provides multiple real-life metrics examples to help drive home concepts behind characteristics of good and bad metrics. Finally, Steve shows how to run his field-tested agile game—Pin the Tail on the Metric. Take back this activity to help you guide metrics conversations at your organization.
Agile Performance Holarchy (APH)—A Model for Scaling Agile TeamsTechWell
A hierarchy is an organizational network that has a top and a bottom, and where position is determined by rank, importance, and value. A holarchy is a network that has no top or bottom and where each person’s value derives from his ability, rather than position. As more companies seek the benefits of agile, leaders need to build and sustain delivery capability while scaling agile without introducing unnecessary process and overhead. The Agile Performance Holarchy (APH) is an empirical model for scaling and sustaining agility while continuing to deliver great products. Jeff Dalton designed the APH by drawing from lessons learned observing and assessing hundreds of agile companies and teams. The APH helps implement a holarchy—a system composed of interacting organizational units called holons—centered on a series of performance circles that embody the behaviors of high performing agile organizations. Jeff describes how APH provides guidelines in the areas of leadership, values, teaming, visioning, governing, building, supporting, and engaging within an all-agile organization. Join Jeff to see what the APH is all about and how you can use it in your team and organization.
A Business-First Approach to DevOps ImplementationTechWell
DevOps is a cultural shift aimed at streamlining intergroup communication and improving operational efficiency for development and operations groups. Over time, inclusion of other IT groups under the DevOps umbrella has become the norm for many organizations. But even broadening the boundaries of DevOps, the conversation has been largely devoid of the business units’ place at the table. A common mistake organizations make while going through the DevOps transformation is drawing a line at the IT boundary. If that occurs, a larger, more inclusive silo within the organization is created, operating in an informational vacuum and causing operational inefficiency and goal misalignment. Sharing his experiences working on both sides of the fence, Leon Fayer describes the importance of including business units in order to align technology decisions with business goals. Leon discusses inclusion of business units in existing agile processes, benefits of cross-departmental monitoring, and a business-first approach to technology decisions.
Databases in a Continuous Integration/Delivery ProcessTechWell
DevOps is transforming software development with many organizations adopting lean development practices, implementing continuous integration (CI), and performing regular continuous deployment (CD) to their production environments. However, the database is largely ignored and often seen as a bottleneck in the DevOps process. Steve Jones discusses the challenges of database development and why many developers find the database to be an impediment to the CD process. Steve shares the techniques you can use to fit a database into the DevOps process. Learn how to store database code in a version control system, and the differences between that and application code. Steve demonstrates a CI process with SQL code and uses automated testing frameworks to check the code. Steve then shows how automated releases with manual gates can reduce the stress and risk of database deployments while ensuring consistent, reliable, repeatable releases to QA, UAT, and production.
Mobile Testing: What—and What Not—to AutomateTechWell
Organizations are moving rapidly into mobile technology, which has significantly increased the demand for testing of mobile applications. David Dangs says testers naturally are turning to automation to help ease the workload, increase potential test coverage, and improve testing efficiency. But should you try to automate all things mobile? Unfortunately, the answer is not always clear. Mobile has its own set of complications, compounded by a wide variety of devices and OS platforms. Join David to learn what mobile testing activities are ripe for automation—and those items best left to manual efforts. He describes the various considerations for automating each type of mobile application: mobile web, native app, and hybrid applications. David also covers device-level testing, types of testing, available automation tools, and recommendations for automation effectiveness. Finally, based on his years of mobile testing experience, David provides some tips and tricks to approach mobile automation. Leave with a clear plan for automating your mobile applications.
Cultural Intelligence: A Key Skill for SuccessTechWell
Diversity is becoming the norm in everyday life. However, introducing global delivery models without a proper understanding of intercultural differences can lead to difficulty, frustration, and reduced productivity. Priyanka Sharma and Thena Barry say that in our diverse world, we need teams with people who can cross these boundaries, communicate effectively, and build the diverse networks necessary to avoid problems. We need to learn about cultural intelligence (CI) and cultural quotient (CQ). CI is the ability to relate and work effectively across cultures. CQ is the cognitive, motivational, and behavioral capacity to understand and respond to beliefs, values, attitudes, and behaviors of individuals and groups. Together, CI and CQ can help us build behavioral capacities that aid motivation, behavior, and productivity in teams as well as individuals. Priyanka and Thena show how to build a more culturally intelligent place with tools and techniques from Leading with Cultural Intelligence, as well as content from the Hofstede cultural model. In addition, they illustrate the model with real-life experiences and demonstrate how they adapted in similar circumstances.
Turn the Lights On: A Power Utility Company's Agile TransformationTechWell
Why would a century-old utility with no direct competitors take on the challenge of transforming its entire IT application organization to an agile methodology? In an increasingly interconnected world, the expectations of customers continue to evolve. From smart meters to smart phones, IoT is creating a crisis point for industries not accustomed to rapid change. Glen Morris explains that pizzas can be tracked by the minute and packages at every stop, and customers now expect this same customer service model should exist for all industries—including power. Glen examines how to create momentum and transform non-IT-focused industries to an agile model. If you are struggling with gaining traction in your pursuit of agile within your business, Glen gives you concrete, practical experiences to leverage in your pursuit. Finally, he communicates how to gain buy-in from business partners who have no idea or concern about agile or its methodologies. If your business partners look at you with amusement when you mention the need for a dedicated Product Owner, join Glen as he walks you through the approaches to overcoming agile skepticism.
Developing Distributed High-performance Computing Capabilities of an Open Sci...Globus
COVID-19 had an unprecedented impact on scientific collaboration. The pandemic and its broad response from the scientific community has forged new relationships among public health practitioners, mathematical modelers, and scientific computing specialists, while revealing critical gaps in exploiting advanced computing systems to support urgent decision making. Informed by our team’s work in applying high-performance computing in support of public health decision makers during the COVID-19 pandemic, we present how Globus technologies are enabling the development of an open science platform for robust epidemic analysis, with the goal of collaborative, secure, distributed, on-demand, and fast time-to-solution analyses to support public health.
Quarkus Hidden and Forbidden ExtensionsMax Andersen
Quarkus has a vast extension ecosystem and is known for its subsonic and subatomic feature set. Some of these features are not as well known, and some extensions are less talked about, but that does not make them less interesting - quite the opposite.
Come join this talk to see some tips and tricks for using Quarkus and some of the lesser known features, extensions and development techniques.
Custom Healthcare Software for Managing Chronic Conditions and Remote Patient...Mind IT Systems
Healthcare providers often struggle with the complexities of chronic conditions and remote patient monitoring, as each patient requires personalized care and ongoing monitoring. Off-the-shelf solutions may not meet these diverse needs, leading to inefficiencies and gaps in care. It’s here, custom healthcare software offers a tailored solution, ensuring improved care and effectiveness.
A Comprehensive Look at Generative AI in Retail App Testing.pdfkalichargn70th171
Traditional software testing methods are being challenged in retail, where customer expectations and technological advancements continually shape the landscape. Enter generative AI—a transformative subset of artificial intelligence technologies poised to revolutionize software testing.
Gamify Your Mind; The Secret Sauce to Delivering Success, Continuously Improv...Shahin Sheidaei
Games are powerful teaching tools, fostering hands-on engagement and fun. But they require careful consideration to succeed. Join me to explore factors in running and selecting games, ensuring they serve as effective teaching tools. Learn to maintain focus on learning objectives while playing, and how to measure the ROI of gaming in education. Discover strategies for pitching gaming to leadership. This session offers insights, tips, and examples for coaches, team leads, and enterprise leaders seeking to teach from simple to complex concepts.
How to Position Your Globus Data Portal for Success Ten Good PracticesGlobus
Science gateways allow science and engineering communities to access shared data, software, computing services, and instruments. Science gateways have gained a lot of traction in the last twenty years, as evidenced by projects such as the Science Gateways Community Institute (SGCI) and the Center of Excellence on Science Gateways (SGX3) in the US, The Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC) and its platforms in Australia, and the projects around Virtual Research Environments in Europe. A few mature frameworks have evolved with their different strengths and foci and have been taken up by a larger community such as the Globus Data Portal, Hubzero, Tapis, and Galaxy. However, even when gateways are built on successful frameworks, they continue to face the challenges of ongoing maintenance costs and how to meet the ever-expanding needs of the community they serve with enhanced features. It is not uncommon that gateways with compelling use cases are nonetheless unable to get past the prototype phase and become a full production service, or if they do, they don't survive more than a couple of years. While there is no guaranteed pathway to success, it seems likely that for any gateway there is a need for a strong community and/or solid funding streams to create and sustain its success. With over twenty years of examples to draw from, this presentation goes into detail for ten factors common to successful and enduring gateways that effectively serve as best practices for any new or developing gateway.
We describe the deployment and use of Globus Compute for remote computation. This content is aimed at researchers who wish to compute on remote resources using a unified programming interface, as well as system administrators who will deploy and operate Globus Compute services on their research computing infrastructure.
top nidhi software solution freedownloadvrstrong314
This presentation emphasizes the importance of data security and legal compliance for Nidhi companies in India. It highlights how online Nidhi software solutions, like Vector Nidhi Software, offer advanced features tailored to these needs. Key aspects include encryption, access controls, and audit trails to ensure data security. The software complies with regulatory guidelines from the MCA and RBI and adheres to Nidhi Rules, 2014. With customizable, user-friendly interfaces and real-time features, these Nidhi software solutions enhance efficiency, support growth, and provide exceptional member services. The presentation concludes with contact information for further inquiries.
Globus Compute wth IRI Workflows - GlobusWorld 2024Globus
As part of the DOE Integrated Research Infrastructure (IRI) program, NERSC at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and ALCF at Argonne National Lab are working closely with General Atomics on accelerating the computing requirements of the DIII-D experiment. As part of the work the team is investigating ways to speedup the time to solution for many different parts of the DIII-D workflow including how they run jobs on HPC systems. One of these routes is looking at Globus Compute as a way to replace the current method for managing tasks and we describe a brief proof of concept showing how Globus Compute could help to schedule jobs and be a tool to connect compute at different facilities.
Software Engineering, Software Consulting, Tech Lead.
Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Spring Core, Spring JDBC, Spring Security,
Spring Transaction, Spring MVC,
Log4j, REST/SOAP WEB-SERVICES.
Prosigns: Transforming Business with Tailored Technology SolutionsProsigns
Unlocking Business Potential: Tailored Technology Solutions by Prosigns
Discover how Prosigns, a leading technology solutions provider, partners with businesses to drive innovation and success. Our presentation showcases our comprehensive range of services, including custom software development, web and mobile app development, AI & ML solutions, blockchain integration, DevOps services, and Microsoft Dynamics 365 support.
Custom Software Development: Prosigns specializes in creating bespoke software solutions that cater to your unique business needs. Our team of experts works closely with you to understand your requirements and deliver tailor-made software that enhances efficiency and drives growth.
Web and Mobile App Development: From responsive websites to intuitive mobile applications, Prosigns develops cutting-edge solutions that engage users and deliver seamless experiences across devices.
AI & ML Solutions: Harnessing the power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Prosigns provides smart solutions that automate processes, provide valuable insights, and drive informed decision-making.
Blockchain Integration: Prosigns offers comprehensive blockchain solutions, including development, integration, and consulting services, enabling businesses to leverage blockchain technology for enhanced security, transparency, and efficiency.
DevOps Services: Prosigns' DevOps services streamline development and operations processes, ensuring faster and more reliable software delivery through automation and continuous integration.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Support: Prosigns provides comprehensive support and maintenance services for Microsoft Dynamics 365, ensuring your system is always up-to-date, secure, and running smoothly.
Learn how our collaborative approach and dedication to excellence help businesses achieve their goals and stay ahead in today's digital landscape. From concept to deployment, Prosigns is your trusted partner for transforming ideas into reality and unlocking the full potential of your business.
Join us on a journey of innovation and growth. Let's partner for success with Prosigns.
How Recreation Management Software Can Streamline Your Operations.pptxwottaspaceseo
Recreation management software streamlines operations by automating key tasks such as scheduling, registration, and payment processing, reducing manual workload and errors. It provides centralized management of facilities, classes, and events, ensuring efficient resource allocation and facility usage. The software offers user-friendly online portals for easy access to bookings and program information, enhancing customer experience. Real-time reporting and data analytics deliver insights into attendance and preferences, aiding in strategic decision-making. Additionally, effective communication tools keep participants and staff informed with timely updates. Overall, recreation management software enhances efficiency, improves service delivery, and boosts customer satisfaction.
Accelerate Enterprise Software Engineering with PlatformlessWSO2
Key takeaways:
Challenges of building platforms and the benefits of platformless.
Key principles of platformless, including API-first, cloud-native middleware, platform engineering, and developer experience.
How Choreo enables the platformless experience.
How key concepts like application architecture, domain-driven design, zero trust, and cell-based architecture are inherently a part of Choreo.
Demo of an end-to-end app built and deployed on Choreo.
TROUBLESHOOTING 9 TYPES OF OUTOFMEMORYERRORTier1 app
Even though at surface level ‘java.lang.OutOfMemoryError’ appears as one single error; underlyingly there are 9 types of OutOfMemoryError. Each type of OutOfMemoryError has different causes, diagnosis approaches and solutions. This session equips you with the knowledge, tools, and techniques needed to troubleshoot and conquer OutOfMemoryError in all its forms, ensuring smoother, more efficient Java applications.
Enhancing Research Orchestration Capabilities at ORNL.pdfGlobus
Cross-facility research orchestration comes with ever-changing constraints regarding the availability and suitability of various compute and data resources. In short, a flexible data and processing fabric is needed to enable the dynamic redirection of data and compute tasks throughout the lifecycle of an experiment. In this talk, we illustrate how we easily leveraged Globus services to instrument the ACE research testbed at the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility with flexible data and task orchestration capabilities.
Experience our free, in-depth three-part Tendenci Platform Corporate Membership Management workshop series! In Session 1 on May 14th, 2024, we began with an Introduction and Setup, mastering the configuration of your Corporate Membership Module settings to establish membership types, applications, and more. Then, on May 16th, 2024, in Session 2, we focused on binding individual members to a Corporate Membership and Corporate Reps, teaching you how to add individual members and assign Corporate Representatives to manage dues, renewals, and associated members. Finally, on May 28th, 2024, in Session 3, we covered questions and concerns, addressing any queries or issues you may have.
For more Tendenci AMS events, check out www.tendenci.com/events
Enhancing Project Management Efficiency_ Leveraging AI Tools like ChatGPT.pdfJay Das
With the advent of artificial intelligence or AI tools, project management processes are undergoing a transformative shift. By using tools like ChatGPT, and Bard organizations can empower their leaders and managers to plan, execute, and monitor projects more effectively.
Enhancing Project Management Efficiency_ Leveraging AI Tools like ChatGPT.pdf
Applying Lean Startup Principles to Agile Projects
1. AT13
Concurrent Session
11/12/15 3:00pm
“Applying Lean Startup Principles to Agile
Projects”
Presented by:
Michael Hall
Improving Enterprises
Brought to you by:
340 Corporate Way, Suite 300, Orange Park, FL 32073
888-268-8770 · 904-278-0524 · info@techwell.com · www.techwell.com
2. Michael Hall
Improving Enterprises
As Principal Consultant at Improving Enterprises, Michael Hall specializes in new product
development using agile methods and Lean Startup principles. Michael has more than thirty
years’ experience developing and delivering large-scale cloud-based systems, next-generation
mobility solutions, mobile apps, embedded device systems, and wireless telecom systems. This
deep technical experience gives Michael an excellent base of real-world product development
knowledge and insightful understanding of the challenges a team is likely to face when
transitioning from traditional to agile. An early adopter of agile methods, Michael has led several
successful enterprise-wide transformations to agile.
4. 2
3
Applicability
It’s for everyone: startups, new product development, new features, etc.
4
Mantra
The goal of any project is to figure out the
right thing to build.
“What if we found ourselves building something that
nobody wanted? In that case, what did it matter if we
did it on time and on budget?”
Look carefully at this picture – what is wrong?
5. 3
5
Thinking
Question at the start of a typical project:
• Can we build a solution for that problem?
Lean Startup questions at the start:
• Do consumers recognize they have a
problem?
• If there was a solution, would they buy it?
• Would they buy it from us?
• Can we build a solution for that problem?
• Can we build a sustainable business
around this product/service?
Ask “Should it be built?” instead of “Can it be built?”
6
Framework
• Adaptable framework
• Based on scientific methods
• A journey of “discovery”
- Subject the vision to constant
hypothesis testing
- React to customer feedback
- Bypass work that does not lead to
learning
- Adapt to what the data is telling you
“Successful entrepreneurs had the foresight, ability, and tools to discover
which part of their plans were working brilliantly and which were misguided,
and adapt their strategies accordingly.
6. 4
Lean Startup - Principles
7
8
Assumptions as Hypotheses
• Identify your project/feature assumptions (continuously)
• Reword them as hypotheses
“The XYZ change will prove that customers want to ...” (value)
“The ABC feature will increase new customers by at least 15%.” (growth)
Avoid:
• Acting as if assumptions are true and proceeding anyway! – Leaps of Faith
• Taking statements for granted
• Reports from anyone other than the customer
7. 5
9
Experiments
• Think of your project as a set of small experiments
• Break business plan down to its component parts – and test them
• Define experiments to test each hypothesis
• Results of the experiments guide decisions about product direction
Experiments allow us to transition from guesses to knowledge.
Case Study: Zappos
10
Exercise
Handout
• Think about a project you are working on
• Name one big Assumption
• Reword the assumption as a Hypothesis
“The XYZ change will prove that customers want to ...” (value)
“The ABC feature will increase new customers by at least 15%.” (growth)
• List 2 – 3 Experiments (user story names, work items, tasks, etc.) that will help
prove or disprove the Hypothesis
8. 6
11
Validated Learning
• The result of the experiments
• Can be positive or negative changes
• Empirical data from the customer
• “Learn lessons early” rather than “build
features and fix bugs”
• Faster and more accurate than market
forecasting and classical business planning
The measure of an effective team is how much validated learning did we
achieve (as opposed to how much did we build).
12
A Tale of Two Teams
• What to build?
• Passionate debates
• Suits decide
• Implement several features at a time
• Celebrates any positive perception
• Clear baseline metric
• Hypothesis on how to improve metric
• Experiments to test hypothesis
• Empirical data from customer usage
• Celebrates learning
9. 7
13
Small Batch Size
• Allows us to identify quality problems sooner
• Pull – each step pulls the parts needed from
the previous step, Toyota JIT production
• As soon as we formulate a hypothesis, run the
experiment as quickly as possible using the
smallest batch size to get the job done!
“Large batch sizes can create a death spiral of re-doing work.”
14
Build – Measure - Learn
the smallest
batch possible
qualitative and quantitative
Decision!
Minimize time
through loop
from the data
10. 8
15
Minimum Viable Product
16
Minimum Viable Product
• The resultant output of successive Build – Measure – Learn loops
• Remove/Avoid any effort that does not lead to learning
• Goal of MVP – test your hypotheses, achieve validated learning
• Decision after learning: pivot/persevere/quit
• Iterate toward launchable product
“The only way to win is
to learn faster than
anyone else.”
11. 9
17
Case Study: Dropbox
• Very popular web-based file-sharing service
• Initial MVP: a YouTube video
• Targeted to early adopters
• Beta waiting list went from 5,000 to 75,000 overnight
• Company now worth over $1B
18
MVP Patterns
• Concierge MVP – personalized service as a learning activity
• Wizard of Oz MVP – behind the scenes humans doing the work
• Case Study: Aardvark
• Low-quality MVP
• Case Study: Craigslist
• Case Study: IMVU avatar teleportation
• Smoke test - marketing materials
• UI mockups
• Etc.
12. 10
19
Pivot, Persevere, or Quit
• Based on the validated learnings of an MVP, decide!
• Pivot – structured course correction designed to test new hypotheses
• Persevere – continue on with next set of hypotheses
• Quit – cancel the project and move on to the next one
“There is no bigger destroyer of creative potential than the
misguided decision to persevere.”
20
Case Study: Potbelly Sandwiches
• Started out as an antique store
• Began selling sandwiches to drive traffic to the stores in
the hopes of selling more antiques
• Lines formed out the door
• Pivoted to a sandwich store
• Today over 280 sandwich stores nationwide
13. 11
21
Pivot Types
• Zoom-in pivot – refocus product on what was previously considered one feature
• Zoom-out pivot – single feature is inadequate, so add features
• Customer segment pivot
• Customer need pivot (Potbelly)
• Platform pivot
• Business architecture pivot
• Value capture pivot
• Engine of growth pivot
• Channel pivot
• Technology pivot
Pivots take courage!
22
Others
• Innovation Accounting
• Engine of Growth
• Adaptive Organization
14. 12
Application to
Agile Projects
23
24
Case Study: DCAPI
• Goal is to accurately measure the user’s video play time
• Measurement messages are from video players
- Start, Stop
- Playhead position
- Ads
- Etc.
• Original product was a downloadable SDK integrated into apps
- Logistical issues when software changes
- Different SDK for each OS
- High certification costs
• New product: web service to receive measurement messages
- Defined Restful API called DCAPI
15. 13
25
Get Started: Hypotheses-Driven Vision
• Develop a classic vision board
• List assumptions
• Continue to identify assumptions as you go
• Translate implicit assumptions into explicit testable hypotheses
• List hypotheses
26
DCAPI Vision Board
Target Group Needs Product Value
For clients who have a need for capturing census-based usage analytics on their connected devices/applications, Data
Collection API (DCAPI) is a cloud-based service that provides a simple easy-to-understand way of reporting measurements.
Unlike classic embedded SDK approaches, the DCAPI will provide a direct reporting experience based on web service calls.
Digital customers
• CBS Interactive
• MobiTV
• A&E Apps
• Crown Media
• Univision Apps
• Pandora
• Viacom
• Fox News
• DirecTV
• NBCU Apps
• AT&T
• JW Player
• Yelp
• Roku
• Xbox
• Connected TVs
• PlayStation
• Ease of measurement reporting
• Use of familiar programmatic
approach
• Less software development
• No need to download/integrate
SDK
• One solution for all digital
• Cloud-based
• Transparent evolution
• Linear scaling as demand
grows
• Fault tolerant
• Increase revenues
• Satisfy pent-up
demand
• Increase digital
footprint
• 1-stop-shop
Assumptions Hypotheses
• Customers will prefer DCAPI over the
embedded SDK
• DCAPI will make it easier to certify apps
• DCAPI can handle a large amount of users
• DCAPI will need a super-fast DB
• An early release to friendly customers will
provide good feedback
• > 80% of all customers will prefer DCAPI
• DCAPI can be self-certified by customers
• DCAPI can handle 50K simultaneous
sessions
• Redis is the best DB for DCAPI
• An initial release can be built with limited (but
valuable) functionality for early adopters
Vision Statement
16. 14
27
Get Empathetic: Knowledge Broker Personas
• A special form of persona
• But emphasizes the knowledge sharing that each can bring
• Customer Archetype – humanizes the proposed target user
Knowledge Sharing
• Will consider the new API approach
• Can explain advantages of Restful API over SDK
• Can provide feedback on error handling
• Can give strong opinion on Offline message handling
• Can share the CBS-I deployment schedules
• Etc.
Kyle Fisher – Senior Software Developer at CBS Interactive
Personal Profile
Kyle is a 42 year-old mobile software
developer. He is familiar with video
streaming and codecs such as MP3,
Vorbis, and AAC. He understands
transport protocols such as MMS,
RTP, HLS, and Adobe’s HDS. His
platform of choice is iOS, but can
work in Android when needed.
Kyle has previously used our
downloadable SDK for the CBS-I
video app.
Background
• 42 year-old Caucasian male
• Father of two
• Enjoys hockey
• Loves anything mobile app related
Attributes
• Upper middle class
• Technically savvy
• Carries latest iPhone
• Has iPad at home
• Enjoys social media
“I want an easy-to-use well defined
Restful API for my mobile apps to
report usage analytics.”
Kyle’s Product-Content Needs
• Simple API
• Parameters are readily available
• Inline https: invocations
• Uncomplicated state diagram
• Guidance on how to handle offline scenarios
• Succinct API specification
28
Get Organized: Learning Maps
• Create a story map on a wall
• But organize and prioritize it by
Hypothesis from left to right
• Which will deliver the most learning?
• Which learnings are most crucial?
• Which learnings reduce risk?
• Which are most crucial in answering
“Are we building the right product?”
• For each hypothesis, name the user
stories and/or work items
• Prioritize the user stories top to bottom
17. 15
29
DCAPI Learning Map
Hypotheses
Experiments:
Stories, Work Items
30
Tee It Up: Experiment Backlogs
• Similar to Scrum product backlog
• But is learning-based prioritization
• List of all experiments 1..n
• Stories, work items, research, etc.
• Tagged with Hypothesis name/description
18. 16
31
DCAPI Experiment Backlog
Cloud API DCAPI-72 Minimum Product Epic Open Unresolved 3/13/2015 19:05 3/23/2015 11:15 Hypothesis: An incomplete DCAPI can be built that is "good enough" for luminary clients.
Cloud API DCAPI-4 Start session, collection switch
enabled
Story Open Unresolved 3/13/2015 14:17 3/23/2015 9:00 As an application, I want to start a session, so that I can begin reporting metrics to the downsteam
systems.
• When I request a session, I expect that my session is started by DCAPI.
• When I request a session, I expect to receive a successful return code from DCAPI.
• When I request a session, I expect to receive a unique session id that I can use in subsequent
DCAPI calls. I also expect to receive an opt-out URL that I can display in my Privacy page.
• When I request a session and DCAPI is unable to start my session, I expect to receive an error
code that indicates the reason.
• When I request a session and my device/application is opted-out, I expect to receive an error code
that indicates opted-out as the reason.
• When I request a session, I expect DCAPI to read in my config file from the Config system. The
Config file contains variable name mappings that allow me to use my own defined variables instead of
the Nielsen defaults.
• When I enable the collection switch after it was previously disabled, I expect measurement
collection to begin again.
• When I enable the collection switch after it was previously enabled, I expect measurement collection
to continue as previously.
Cloud API DCAPI-5 Start play Story Open Unresolved 3/13/2015 14:17 3/19/2015 16:09 As an application, I want to start play, so that I can report the exact timestamp when media has
started playing.
Acceptance Criteria
• When I start play, I expect to receive a successful return code from DCAPI
• When there is an error in the data transmission to DCAPI, I expect to receive an error response
code.
Note: Start play is sent when media content begins playing. This occurs after the app requests the
content to play (request start play) and the (potential) buffering time occurs
Cloud API DCAPI-8 Pause/stop play Story Open Unresolved 3/13/2015 14:18 3/23/2015 8:59 As an application, I want to report when I pause play, so that I can send metrics to DCAPI
• When I am sending pause for live content, I expect DCAPI to accept the data as defined in the API
such as event, UTC time, and type.
• When I am sending pause for VOD content, I expect DCAPI to accept the data as defined in the API
such as event, offset time, and type.
• When I am sending pause, I expect DCAPI to be able to accept my data every 10 seconds.
• When I send pause, I expect an OK response code.
• When there is an error in the data transmission to DCAPI, I expect an error response code.
• When I send pause to DCAPI, I expect DCAPI to send a ping to Census based on the applied
business logic.
32
Get Focused: Minimum Learning Product (MLP)
• Similar to MVP, but much smaller
• Learning-based, not viable product-
based
• Smallest chunk of the Learning Map
that can be developed to learn
something important
• Real or mock form
• Goal is to get just enough learnings
- Then pivot, persevere, or quit
• Choosing the MLP replaces classic
Scrum sprint planning
- Break into tasks if it helps
19. 17
33
DCAPI Minimum Learning Product
MLP
34
Experiment Test Iteration
• Experiment Test Iteration (ETI)
• Similar to Scrum sprint but variable time length
- Depends on size of experiment
- Get through Build/Measure/Learn as quickly as possible!
Scrum: fixed iteration length
ETI: variable iteration length
ETI 1
3 days
ETI 2
5 days
ETI 3
9 days
ETI 4
17 days
ETI 5
6 days
ETI 6
7 days
20. 18
35
Build It: ETI
• Build out the MLP
• Measure progress based on validated learning
• Use modified storyboard showing Validated column
Story To Do In Work Done Validated
36
Get More Data: Learning Results Period
• Obtaining results from knowledge brokers
• Sometimes the validation takes longer than the end of the ETI
• Run this in parallel with the next ETI
- Defer pivot/persevere/quit decision until this data is in
ETI 1
3 days
ETI 2
5 days
ETI 3
9 days
ETI 4
17 days
ETI 5
6 days
ETI 6
7 days
ETI3 Learning
Results Period
Pivot/Persevere/Quit
21. 19
37
Demo It: ETI Review
• Dev team demos their progress
• Discuss learnings obtained from the Learning Results Period
• Experiment findings are discussed with stakeholders
• Decision: pivot, persevere, or quit
38
Think About It: ETI Retrospective
• Team discusses
- What went well, what did not go well
- How to get better
• A spirit of “continuous improvement”
• Plus:
- How is the team feeling about the assumptions?
- Are there any not identified previously?
22. 20
39
Rinse & Repeat: MLPs
• Build series of MLPs to reach final launchable product
• Use innovation accounting to “tune the growth engine”
• Be courageous in pivot/persevere/quit decisions
40
Team Dynamics
• Scrum team becomes a small “innovation factory”
- Responsible for code and/or artifacts that prove/disprove a hypothesis
- Continuous innovation
• Practicing the art of “genchi genbutsu”
- “Go and see”
- The only way to truly understand the requirements is to get out of the
office and spend time with the customer
- Gemba – the real place
- Don’t rely on information from other sources
23. 21
41
Gemba Walk
• Gemba Walk
- Go see the actual process
- Purposeful attempt to learn what is really going on
- Direct customer interaction
- Ask questions
- Show respect
- Learn
42
Team Dynamics (cont)
• ScrumMaster becomes “shusa”
• Chief engineer responsible for guiding the product to success
• Guides team on experiments and MLPs to product
24. 22
Conclusion
43
44
Conclusion
• Lean Startup principles can and should be used in
Agile projects
- To help insure we build the right thing
• Approximately 10 techniques presented, but there
are probably even more
• This could be the next major evolution of Agile!
“If we stopped wasting people’s time, what
would they do with it?
We have no real concept of what is possible.”
25. 23
45
Introducing: Gemba
• Gemba: a validated learning Agile method
Gemba
Scrum Lean Startup Lean
46
Gemba Manifesto
We value
• Validated learning over reasonable assumptions
• Data-driven decisions over plausible-sounding arguments
• Building minimum learning products over additional features
• The courage to build the right thing over something that might work
27. 25
49
Innovation Accounting
• Measure the progress of innovation
towards validated learning – instead of
burn rate or $
• Three steps
• Use MVP to establish real data
• Tune the engine from baseline towards ideal
• Pivot, persevere, or quit
• Use actionable metrics – clear
cause&effect
• Split-test of a feature caused 20% increase in
sales
• Per-customer metrics
• Cohort metrics – groups of customers
• Avoid vanity metrics
• Number of hits to a website
• Action to take is not obvious
“If you are building the wrong thing,
optimizing the product or its marketing
will not yield significant results.”
50
Engine of Growth
• Use a small set of actionable metrics
• Customer acquisition cost
• Activations
• Retention
• Revenue
• Referrals
• Consider viral coefficient
• How many friends will each customer bring?
• Case Study: Hotmail
• “Tune” the engine every time learning occurs
28. 26
51
Adaptive Organization
• Auto-adjust process and performance based on
current learnings
• Andon cord – anyone can stop the production line!
• Slow down – invest in preventing issues
• Ask “Why?” 5 times to get to root cause
Avoid
• Handoffs and approvals
• Making decisions on plausible-sounding arguments
• Low quality products
• Defects