If you’ve read Reasons for Continuous Planning, you might be wondering, “How can we do this?” Here are some ideas. You have a couple of preconditions: The teams get to done on features often. I like small stories that the team can finish in a day or so. The teams continuously integrate their features. Frequent features […]
I’m working on the program management book, specifically on the release planning chapter. One of the problems I see in programs is that the organization/senior management/product manager wants a “commitment” for an entire quarter. Since they think in quarter-long roadmaps, that’s not unreasonable—from their perspective. There is a problem with commitments and the need for
In agile, we separate the Product Owner function from functional (development) management. The reason is that we want the people who can understand and evaluate the business value to articulate the business value to tell the people who understand the work’s value when to implement what. The technical folks determine how to implement the what.
Do you have a title such as product manager, product owner, or business analyst? We hear these titles all the time. What does each do? Here is how I have seen successful agile projects and programs use people in these positions. Note that I am discussing agile projects and programs. The product manager creates the
As I work with more clients on their programs, I see that what might work for a product owner for a team does not work for a program. In a program, if the product owner is shortsighted, does not take advantage of agile/lean for updates, and does not have small features, the program loses momentum.
Andy Hunt, the Pragmatic Bookshelf publisher, just sent me an email telling me that Manage Your Project Portfolio is featured in La República, Columbia’s “first and most important business newspaper.” That’s because getabstract liked it! Okay, my book is below the fold. It’s in smaller print. And, I have to say, I’m still pretty excited. If
I’m writing part of the program management book, talking about how you need to keep everything small to maintain momentum. Sometimes, to keep your work small, teams move from iterations to flow. Here are times when you might consider moving from iteration to flow: The Product Owner wants to change the order of features in
I did a little bit of work for the ProdBOK (the Product Management Body of Knowledge) earlier in 2012. It was a little bit of work. I had an opportunity to meet Greg Geracie, along with some other very nice people. When the BOK comes out, at some point later this year, I’ll get to
Chris asked in his comment, how about using the word ‘abandoned’ for projects that are “finished”? I just don’t think of completed projects as abandoned. Let’s separate the product from the project. Projects complete. Products may never be done, but projects do finish, sometimes whether we want them to or not. I was working as