agile india2012 po role_can you hear me now
DESCRIPTION
presented at agile 2011 & agilTRANSCRIPT
PO RoleCAN YOU HEAR ME NOW?
Belkis Vasquez McCall
1
Belkis’ Persona – Senior Product Owner
Important to Know about Belkis:
▪ Has over 14 years of IT experience
▪ Spent past 6+ years leading and coaching
project teams
▪ Collaborated with other Agile experts on
defining the Product Owner role
1. “Successful people do what unsuccessful people don’t dare.
Belkis’ philosophy:
2
Personas highlighted in this presentation…
Former Business Analysts
Former Project ManagersDirector of Applica-tion development
Important to know about us
▪ Are part of a globally distributed
application development group
▪ Have over 5 years of Agile experience
▪ Deliver high business value IT systems
As a PO, I use personas
3
Building quality products…As a PO, I use personas
starts with you
4
Vision and goals for today…
Vision
Highlight how the PO role has helped former Business Analysts and Project Managers
exercise their influence beyond project execution into product experience
“Getting our voices heard at the product level!”Goal:
Share best practices from PMs and BAs
that have transitioned to the PO role
1
Explore together how as PO we can
amplify our voices at the program and
organizational level
3
Highlight how the PO role has impacted
the success of our organization
2
As a PO, I use simple vision document
5
Challenges we faced as Business Analysts1
As a BA, I struggled
writing big documents
that team members did
not understand
6
Challenges we faced as Business Analysts1
As a BA, I struggled
with spending a lot of
time being a
requirement master to
ensure developers
understood the product
Source: http://urbantitan.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/crazy-school-teacher-300x270.jpg
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Challenges we faced as Business Analysts1
As a BA, I struggled
with the concept of
ownership and getting
the team to be aligned
with the product vision
8
Challenges we faced as Project Managers1
As a PM, I struggled
with scope creep and
still meeting the
customer deadline
Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug
Inception Phase
Elaboration Phase
Construction Phase
Transition Phase
It 1 It 2 It 3
It 1 It 2 It 3 It 4
(Weekly It’s)
Sep Oct
Release Window
Nov
9
Challenges we faced as Project Managers1
As a PM, I struggled
with expectation
setting and getting
everyone to understand
their role
10
Challenges we faced as Project Managers1
As a PM, I struggled
with lack of trans-
parency and not
knowing the progress
of the team
11
Used the four Agile principles to overcome our challenges
1. Individuals and
interactions over processes
and tools
3. Responding to change
over following a plan
4. Customer
collaboration over
contract negotiation
2. Working software over
comprehensive documentation
SOURCE: www.agilemanifesto.org (March 2008)
As a PO, I use value the agile principles
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PO practices from former BAs and PMs that helped them develop better products
1 As a PO, I use…
13
Best practices from Business Analysts that have transitionedto the PO role
1
As a PO, I write
simple, ‘Just in time’
documents that team
members can easily
understand
As a PO, I use…
14
Best practices from Business Analysts that have transitionedto the PO role
1
As a PO, I encourage
the team to be part of
design and
requirements
discussions to ensure
collective ownership of
the product
As a PO, I use…
15
Best practices from Business Analysts that have transitionedto the PO role
1
As a PO, I sign-off
requirements and
features to help move
the release forward
As a PO, I use…
16
Best practices from Project Managers that have transitioned to the PO role
1
As a PO, I use scope
burn down to track
scope creep and help
the sponsors make
trade-offs
17
Best practices from Project Managers that have transitioned to the PO role
1
As a PO, I use the
sprint burn up chart
to understand our
progress and indentify
risks
18
Best practices from Project Managers that have transitioned to the PO role
1
As a PO, I leverage
sprint artifacts to get
everyone to understand
their role
19
IT leadership explains how the PO role has impacted the success of our organization
2As the director of
Application Development
my perspective on the PO
role is…
20
Becoming Decision
Maker
BUILDING BETTER
PRODUCTS!
Adapting light weight practices
Our practices have evolved with the PO role2
Translating
requirements
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Start exploring how POs can amplify their voices at the program and organization level
3As a PO, I’m adapting to
changes in the role
Product Genesis Product Creation Product Evolution
Planning produc-
tionreleases
PresentWork on activities from current
sprint
PastClose-out open
stories from
previous sprints
FutureWork on
preparing/
prioritizing
stories for 2-3
sprints ahead 2
1
4
3Sprintcycle
activities
▪ User research
▪ Rapid Prototyping
▪ Personas
▪ Story boarding
▪ High-level Backlog
▪ Usage analytics
▪ User research
▪ User behaviors
▪ Enhancements
▪ Evolving needs of the market
DECISION TO MOVE FORWARD WITH SOLUTION
VALUABLE FUNCTIONALITY AVAILABLE TO USERS
NEXT 2-3 FUTURE RELEASES
Product Owner involvement in the product experience
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Key ingredients for being a Product Owner that is heard and successful
Can You Hear
Me Now?
PO Role
Creates collective ownership of the
product vision and roadmap
Works with stakeholders and team
to manage scope and priorities
Empowered to make decisions and helps
the team adapt to evolving user needs
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Lessons learned with transitioning to the PO role
Getting stakeholders and team members used to
‘just in time’ requirements takes time
Taking on a leadership role for a release is
rewarding but can also be overwhelming at first
The constraints with time, forces you to make
decisions now and not put them off for later
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Group exercise