engineering challenges, product management solutions - product camp 2016
TRANSCRIPT
Engineering Challenges / Product Management Solutions
Ron Lichty, principal, Ron Lichty Consulting author, Managing the Unmanageable
www.RonLichty.com www.ManagingTheUnmanageable.net
Ron Lichty,��� Managing Development & Product Teams ���
SOFTWEST
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Annual Study ���of Product Team Performance
http://www.ronlichty.com/study.html © Ron Lichty 3
* Addison Wesley
*
© Ron Lichty 4
Training Teams: Agile���
1-4 weeks
© Ron Lichty 5
Debugging Software Teams ���Transforming Chaos to Clarity
© Ron Lichty 6
Debugging Software Teams ���Transforming Chaos to Clarity
• Product Management is essential
© Ron Lichty 7
Debugging Software Teams ���Transforming Chaos to Clarity
• Product Management is essential– Technical– Effective– Experienced
© Ron Lichty 8
Scattershot, Hit-or-Miss Development
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Scattershot, Hit-or-Miss Development
• It’s PdM that supplies consistent direction– vision– roadmap– prioritized backlogs of stories– theming sprints
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Development Is Distracted
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Be an umbrella to the noise
--John Evans photo
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Be an umbrella to the noise
--John Evans photo
• Speed of Ideation exceeds the Speed of Development
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Be an umbrella to the noise
--John Evans photo
• Speed of Ideation exceeds the Speed of Development• Courage: “Great idea! I’ll put that in the backlog”
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Let developers focus
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Source: Mike Cohn, citing Steven C.Wheelwright and Kim B.Clark (1993), Revolutionizing Product Development: Quantum Leaps in Speed, Efficiency and Quality, 1993
Don’t Be a Source of Multitasking
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���taking communications overload into account ���
Source: Rob Maher, “Increasing Team Productivity: A project focus creates waste and leaves value on the table”, Scrum.org Whitepapers
Rob Maher, surmising that email, texts, IRC, chat, smartphones together represent a second “task”Source: Mike Cohn, citing Steven C.Wheelwright and Kim B.Clark (1993), Revolutionizing Product Development: Quantum Leaps in Speed, Efficiency and Quality, 1993
Don’t Be a Source of Multitasking
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--Larry Maccherone, The Impact of Agile Quantified, Rally, 2013
Don’t Be a Source of Multitasking
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Developers Are Lackluster
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Connect the vision with the team’s work
http://www.ManagingTheUnmanageable.net© Ron Lichty
Create an Agile Culture
© Ron Lichty 21
Developers Aren’t Following the Plan
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Order the Backlog by Value
© Ron Lichty 23pixabay.com
Development Is on a Death March
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Provide Clarity: Scope or Deadline???
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What You’re Getting ≠ What You Wanted
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What You’re Getting ≠ What You Wanted• Clear requirements• Always based on the customer• An answer to every ambiguity• The “what”; for context the “who” & the “why”• Never the demotivating “how”• How we’ll know we’ve achieved success: UATs• 3rd ‘C’ in Planning Meeting 3 C’s: Confirmation
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Team Doesn’t Get the Vision
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Engage Developers with Real Users
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Developers Go Unheard
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Developers Go Unheard
“If you’re just using your engineers to code, you’re losing half their value.”
“The single biggest innovator in many companies is the tech lead.”
--Marty Cagan© Ron Lichty 31
Listen, Ask
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• Developers want to delight customers, too• They see opportunities in the code• Give them context / expect rich options© Ron Lichty 32
Cost of Adding Features Spikes
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Groom the Backlog in Collaboration ���with your Tech Lead!
• PdMs are responsible for the backlog• Critical technical Product Backlog Items:
– just-enough architecture– resolving technical risk– automating building and testing– fixing critical bugs
• Either– collaboratively interweave technical PBIs– assign nn% every sprint to tech team stories
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Sprints Are a Mishmash of Stuff
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Theme Your Sprints
© Ron Lichty 36pixabay.com
Debugging Software Teams ���Transforming Chaos to Clarity
Product Management is essential
© Ron Lichty 37
Rules of Thumb / Nuggets of Wisdom*
* 300 in the book / more at http://managingtheunmanageable.net/morerulesofthumb.html© Ron Lichty 38
Ron Lichty Consulting • Interim & acting CTO/VP Eng roles / making development hum
– http://ronlichty.com, [email protected]
• The book: ���Managing the Unmanageable: ��� Rules, Tools & Insights for Managing Software People & Teams– http://ManagingTheUnmanageable.net
• The study: ���The Study of Product Team Performance – http://www.ronlichty.com/study.html
• Training: Agile for TeamsThe Agile ManagerManaging Software People and Teams
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