prioritizing the product backlog aipmm webinar
DESCRIPTION
AIPMM Webinar 5/14/2010 by Greg Cohen & Ron Lichty: Real World Strategies for Prioritizing the Product BacklogTRANSCRIPT
©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318
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Real World Strategies for Prioritizing the Product
Backlog
Greg Cohen Principal Consultant
280 Group LLC [email protected]
Ron Lichty Interim VP of Engineering [email protected]
©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318 v20100410 © 2010 280 Group LLC
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Greg Cohen
• Fifteen years of PM Experience – Med diagnostics and devices
• Chiron • Smith & Nephew
– Pandesic (SAP and Intel) – IdealLab! – Instill
• Principal Consultant, 280 Group • Certified Scrum Master • SVPMA Board Member and former
President • Author “Agile Excellence for Product
Managers”
About Us
Ron Lichty
• Twenty years Eng Mgmt Experience – Apple – Fujitsu – Charles Schwab – Razorfish – Zone Alarm – startups
• Consulting VPE • Certified Scrum Master • SDForum Board Member • Co-Author of next year’s
“Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools & Wisdom for Managing Software People and Projects”
©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318 v20100410 © 2010 280 Group LLC
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Prioritizing by value is tough and must be balanced with risk
Risk & Cost
Return
Short term vs long term
©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318 v20100410 © 2010 280 Group LLC
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Agenda
• Overview • Prioritizing by value • Mitigating risk • How to leverage emergent architecture • Managing costs • Impact of time on priority
©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318 v20100410 © 2010 280 Group LLC
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Prioritize product backlog by business value
• Determine business value • Value is often only realized by a collection of features
(e.g. multiple stories that work together) • Value determination usually
requires judgment • Individual’s value judgments
based on tacit knowledge
©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318 v20100410 © 2010 280 Group LLC
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Return on Investment
• To your business • For your customer
©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318
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Market Opportunity Scores
Algorithm: Opportunity = Importance + (Importance – Satisfaction)
Anthony W. Ulwick, What Customers Want, 2005
Desired Outcomes Importance Satisfaction Opportunity
Be able to know if an accessory is compatible with my camera 8.5 2.1 14.9
Minimize the time it takes to find a camera that meets my skills and budget
9.2 7.2 11.2
Be able to track my order from purchase thru delivery 7.3 9.0 5.6
©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318 v20100410 © 2010 280 Group LLC
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Buying Features
• Buy a feature1
– Create list of features – Play with 4 to 7 customers at a time – Price some feature so customers have to pool money
• Spend $100 of R&D – Create list of features – Ask customer to allocate R&D
budget to the list of features
1Luke Hohmann, Innovation Games, 2007. Online version http://innovationgames.com/online-games/
©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318 v20100410 © 2010 280 Group LLC
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Subjective Value Determination
• Set a vision for the product and place each requirement in the context of that vision
• Establish criteria and rank requirements – Prioritization Matrix – Buy-in is reinforced when criteria and rankings are
done as a group activity
©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318 v20100410 © 2010 280 Group LLC
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Example Matrix
Note: Cost and Risk still need to be considered
©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318 v20100410 © 2010 280 Group LLC
Mitigating Risk
• Practice Risk-First Development – Identify project risks – Weigh the risk
• your project can tolerate • your organization can tolerate
– Give priority to stories and tasks that mitigate unacceptable risk
– Consistent risk: UI (need to iterate UI)
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©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318 v20100410 © 2010 280 Group LLC
Leveraging Emergent Architecture
• “Gift” features: gifts from development • Based on:
– Chartering – “Commander’s Intent” – Communicating vision
• Also based on listening for brainstorms, insights – Encourage them – (but stop short of encouraging
out-of-process dev)
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©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318 v20100410 © 2010 280 Group LLC
Maximizing technical investment and learning
• Let your team invest in work with technical pay-off – Early learning and maximal understanding – Slash technical debt – Reduce uncertainty – Choosing / prioritizing backlog items
that facilitate design to emerge, prove workflow, test architecture
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©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318 v20100410 © 2010 280 Group LLC
Managing Costs
• Collaboration – Development can provide cost - at least relative
cost – Product Owner can ask: What can I do to reduce
that cost - to get the ROI I want? • Splitting • MMF • Alternatives
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©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318 v20100410 © 2010 280 Group LLC
Impact of time on priority
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Time
Return
Time
Return
Time
Return
Time
Return
High risk
Microprocessor Maintenance Upgrades
New industry standard
Denne & Cleland-Huang, Software by Numbers, 2004
©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318 v20100410 © 2010 280 Group LLC
Risk, Return, Cost View
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High Return
Low Return
High Risk Low Risk
Feature 1
Feature 2
Feature 4
= cost
Feature 5
Feature 3
©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318 v20100410 © 2010 280 Group LLC
Summary
• Prioritizing by value is complicated • Mitigate project risks by doing risk first
development • At times it makes sense to place a high risk
item before a higher value item • Need to balance Return, Cost, and Risk • What you want and what it costs are a
conversation
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©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318 v20100410 © 2010 280 Group LLC
Additional Resources
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2. Discussion Groups a) “LeanPM” Yahoo! discussion group b) 280 Group LinkedIn Group
Agile Excellence for Product Managers by Greg Cohen
3. Free PM Templates www.280Group.com Resources
1. Books
4. Training Agile Product Management Excellence Course • AIPMM PMEC West Conference, May 24 - 26 • San Jose, June 11 (www.280group.com, Save 15% AGPME15) • New York, June 25 (www.280group.com, Save 15% AGPME15)