Kanban and large-scale strategic planning 9:00 am Kanban and large-scale strategic planning Eric Brechner Dev Manager, Xbox Eric Brechner is the development manager for Microsoft’s Xbox Engineering Services team, and author of the new book, “Agile Project Management with Kanban.” At Microsoft, he has also been development manager for Xbox.com, engineering learning and development, and Office Media Store. He has previously worked at Boeing, Silicon Graphics, Graftek, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Eric is also the author of a book and blog on Software best practices (as I. M. Wright), he holds eight patents and a PhD in applied mathematics, and is an affiliate professor for the University of Washington Bothell.

Outline 9:05 am What is large-scale strategic planning? Why not use only Kanban? Our product Ideation: market analysis, technology themes, and business model McGrath and MacMillan Options Portfolio Customer segmentation and scenarios with KPIs and prioritization Mock press release System architecture Backlog generation, estimation, and prioritization Overall release schedule Backlog ordering Do you need to fit Kanban into large-scale strategic planning for your organization? This workshop, run by a development manager for Xbox, will provide you hands-on experience doing large-scale strategic planning, and fitting those plans into your Kanban process and backlog. Participants will break into teams and create the bottom-up and top-down plan for a (pretend) major product release. Planning will include ideation, constructing a McGrath and MacMillan Options Portfolio, and drafting a value proposition vision document (including market analysis, customer segmentation and scenarios with prioritization, technology themes, business model, KPIs, and a mock press release). With the plan in hand, teams will populate, order, and estimate their Kanban backlogs. Those estimates will roll up to the overall release schedule. Join us, and think big!

What is large-scale strategic planning? 9:10 am What is large-scale strategic planning? What is large-scale strategic planning? Why not use only Kanban? Our product Ideation: market analysis, technology themes, and business model McGrath and MacMillan Options Portfolio Customer segmentation and scenarios with KPIs and prioritization Mock press release System architecture Backlog generation, estimation, and prioritization Overall release schedule Backlog ordering 8 people/team * 8 teams/group * 8 groups/division * 16 divisions = 8192 people

Why not use only Kanban? 9:12 am Product Release Feature What is large-scale strategic planning? Why not use only Kanban? Our product Ideation: market analysis, technology themes, and business model McGrath and MacMillan Options Portfolio Customer segmentation and scenarios with KPIs and prioritization Mock press release System architecture Backlog generation, estimation, and prioritization Overall release schedule Backlog ordering Product Vision Document Engineering System Establish milestone dates and goals Mitigate risks and dependencies Milestone Schedule Release Align schedules & communicate status Conduct milestone reviews Diagram courtesy of Kimberly Walters Estimate and prioritize features Align features to milestones Feature Schedule Feature Report status and remove blockages Complete work Review tasks and assign resources

9:14 am Our product What is large-scale strategic planning? Why not use only Kanban? Our product Ideation: market analysis, technology themes, and business model McGrath and MacMillan Options Portfolio Customer segmentation and scenarios with KPIs and prioritization Mock press release System architecture Backlog generation, estimation, and prioritization Overall release schedule Backlog ordering This is a purely hypothetical exercise, though Xbox often gets requests for a product like this.

Ideation: 9:15 am Market analysis Technology themes Business models What is large-scale strategic planning? Why not use only Kanban? Our product Ideation: market analysis, technology themes, and business model McGrath and MacMillan Options Portfolio Customer segmentation and scenarios with KPIs and prioritization Mock press release System architecture Backlog generation, estimation, and prioritization Overall release schedule Backlog ordering Market analysis Competitors, table stakes, differentiation, and opportunities Technology themes Emerging technologies, breakthrough innovations, and game changers Business models Pricing, COGS, subscriptions, advertising, and partnerships THE GOAL: An overview and potential features on sticky notes Finish by 9:40 am

McGrath and MacMillan Options Portfolio 9:40 am McGrath and MacMillan Options Portfolio What is large-scale strategic planning? Why not use only Kanban? Our product Ideation: market analysis, technology themes, and business model McGrath and MacMillan Options Portfolio Customer segmentation and scenarios with KPIs and prioritization Mock press release System architecture Backlog generation, estimation, and prioritization Overall release schedule Backlog ordering THE GOAL: Place features (yours or others) in portfolio and balance Finish by 10:00 am

Customer scenarios with KPIs 10:00 am Customer scenarios with KPIs What is large-scale strategic planning? Why not use only Kanban? Our product Ideation: market analysis, technology themes, and business model McGrath and MacMillan Options Portfolio Customer segmentation and scenarios with KPIs and prioritization Mock press release System architecture Backlog generation, estimation, and prioritization Overall release schedule Backlog ordering Customer segmentation SPICIER scenarios KPIs: measure of delight Prioritization THE GOAL: A customer segment, SPICIER scenario, and three KPIs Finish by 10:30 am Scenario-Focused Engineering: A toolbox for innovation and customer-centricity (Developer Best Practices) http://www.amazon.com/Scenario-Focused-Engineering-innovation-customer-centricity-Developer/dp/0735679339

Mock press release 10:30 am Headline and subhead What is large-scale strategic planning? Why not use only Kanban? Our product Ideation: market analysis, technology themes, and business model McGrath and MacMillan Options Portfolio Customer segmentation and scenarios with KPIs and prioritization Mock press release System architecture Backlog generation, estimation, and prioritization Overall release schedule Backlog ordering Headline and subhead Location, date, and lead Key issue or barrier resolved for target audience High-level messaging around top scenarios, highlighting differentiation THE GOAL: Mock press release Finish by 11:00 am

System architecture 11:00 am Apps DVR/Guide Natural User Interface What is large-scale strategic planning? Why not use only Kanban? Our product Ideation: market analysis, technology themes, and business model McGrath and MacMillan Options Portfolio Customer segmentation and scenarios with KPIs and prioritization Mock press release System architecture Backlog generation, estimation, and prioritization Overall release schedule Backlog ordering Catalog and Purchasing Services Personalization and Social Services Apps DVR/Guide Natural User Interface Operating system and drivers Hardware and accessories

Backlog population 11:10 am What is large-scale strategic planning? Why not use only Kanban? Our product Ideation: market analysis, technology themes, and business model McGrath and MacMillan Options Portfolio Customer segmentation and scenarios with KPIs and prioritization Mock press release System architecture Backlog generation, estimation, and prioritization Overall release schedule Backlog ordering Generate (brainstorm) high-level work items for your area Based on mock press release scenarios Estimate size of each item T-shirt sizing: S (days), M (weeks), L (months), XL (6+ months) Prioritize items Separate must-have from should-have and like-to-have THE GOAL: Prioritized and estimated set of items on sticky notes Finish by 11:40 am

Overall release schedule 11:40 am Overall release schedule What is large-scale strategic planning? Why not use only Kanban? Our product Ideation: market analysis, technology themes, and business model McGrath and MacMillan Options Portfolio Customer segmentation and scenarios with KPIs and prioritization Mock press release System architecture Backlog generation, estimation, and prioritization Overall release schedule Backlog ordering Three 3-month milestones Milestone 1: must-haves Milestone 2: remaining must-haves plus should-haves (preview ships) Milestone 3: remaining items that fit (product ships) Order your items (sticky notes) in corresponding milestones Check timing of your dependencies Sign-up for 10-minute speed dating Work out issues and reorder items Repeat until 12:20

Backlog ordering 12:20 am Collect your items in their new order What is large-scale strategic planning? Why not use only Kanban? Our product Ideation: market analysis, technology themes, and business model McGrath and MacMillan Options Portfolio Customer segmentation and scenarios with KPIs and prioritization Mock press release System architecture Backlog generation, estimation, and prioritization Overall release schedule Backlog ordering Collect your items in their new order Add them to your Kanban board backlog Build it and ship it!

Wrap-up 12:25 am Different scale  different planning Balanced portfolio SPICIER scenarios Start at the end Estimate, prioritize, align, order Please submit your evaluations— Thank you! For more details read: Agile Project Management with Kanban