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Targeted Content and the Agile 
Whole Team Approach 
Alyssa Fox 
@afox98
The Old Way of Doing Scrum 
Development 
QE 
ID 
• Disparate visions 
• Dev estimates 
only 
• Separate 
responsibilities 
• Tasks divided 
among sprints 
Flickr: Michele Massetani 
© 2014 NetIQ Corporation. 2 All rights reserved. @afox98
Done 
vs. 
Done Done 
© 2014 NetIQ Corporation. 3 All rights reserved. @afox98
The New Way of Doing Scrum 
• Shared vision 
• Dev, QE, and 
ID estimates 
• Shared 
responsibilities 
• Tasks for all 
areas in same 
sprint Flickr: Lawrence Sinclair 
© 2014 NetIQ Corporation. 4 All rights reserved. @afox98
Not Done 
vs. 
Done 
© 2014 NetIQ Corporation. 5 All rights reserved. @afox98
flickr: freepik.com 
© 2014 NetIQ Corporation. 6 All rights reserved. @afox98
Targeted Content 
Best Practices 
• Start with the minimum information a user needs. 
• Provide what the user needs to know, not what you know. 
• Describe why you would use a feature or perform a task with the 
software, and relate that information back to users’ goals. 
– User story acceptance criteria helps by defining the user’s goal. 
– Keep the overall big picture in mind. 
• Add graphics and screenshots where relevant and useful. 
• Assume the user has knowledge appropriate for their jobs. 
• Let the UI speak for itself; don’t repeat the obvious. 
• Content comes first, process comes second. 
© 2014 NetIQ Corporation. 7 All rights reserved. @afox98
New Role = Higher Quality and More 
Targeted Content 
• Help define acceptance 
criteria. 
• Include ID estimates in 
planning. 
• Perform UI reviews and 
usability tests. 
• Solicit feedback in sprints. 
• Run test cases. 
• Participate in backlog 
grooming. flickr: victoriabernal 
© 2014 NetIQ Corporation. 8 All rights reserved. @afox98
Swarming 
“It’s better to have 80% of the Flickr: features Lawrence Sinclair 
100% done, 
instead of having 100% of the features 80% done.” 
flickr: kosare 
~Oleksi Derkatch 
© 2014 NetIQ Corporation. 9 All rights reserved. @afox98
Zero Bug Tolerance 
Flickr: Lawrence Sinclair 
© 2014 NetIQ Corporation. 10 All rights reserved. @afox98
Benefits of Whole Team Approach 
• Improves teamwork 
• Increases quality 
• Reduces lower-value documentation 
• Gets UI strings and workflows right the first time 
• Allows more time for targeted user assistance 
• Improves understanding of users, so improves 
Flickr: Lawrence Sinclair 
assistance when addressing their pain points 
© 2014 NetIQ Corporation. 11 All rights reserved. @afox98
References 
• Internal NetIQ presentations, Susan Tacker. 
• “Are You a Whole Team?” http://www.infoq.com/articles/whole-team 
• “Play Soccer, not Football: How to Foster a Whole-Team Approach by 
Thinking in Activities Rather than Roles,” Matt Philip. 
http://mattphilip.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/play_soccer_not_football-agile- 
and-beyond.pdf 
• Agile Testing: A Practical Guide for Testers and Agile Teams, Lisa Crispin 
and Janet Gregory. (http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Testing-Practical-Guide- 
Testers/dp/0321534468/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391386425&sr=8- 
1&keywords=lisa+crispin) 
• Innolution Product Owner Training, Kenny Rubin. 
http://innolution.com/training/product-owner-training 
• “How Swarming Helps Agile Teams to Deliver,” Ben Linders. 
http://www.infoq.com/news/2013/02/swarming-agile-teams-deliver 
• “The Whole Team Approach to Software Quality,” Ed Spire. 
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/55047326/WHOLE%20team%20appr 
oach%20to%20quality.pptx 
• “The Whole Team Approach in Practice,” Lisa Crispin. 
http://lisacrispin.com/2011/04/26/the-whole-team-approach-in-practice/ 
© 2014 NetIQ Corporation. 12 All rights reserved. @afox98