Agile Development from a Product Management Perspective Scott Cressman Technical Product Manager, Sophos

Agenda How Sophos Vancouver works The Retrospective Conclusion Q & A

How Sophos Vancouver Works

History Converted to eXtreme Programming in 2005 Senior-level champion was important Disruptive, but turned things around Continuously evolving processes

Today Relatively mature processes Still different among teams Affected by project & program management requirements Still evolving…

XP Processes Release planning Iterations Stand-ups Pair programming Retrospectives Test driven development Story test driven development

Dividing up the Product Management duties

Project Framework Translation layer High-level Project Management XP happens underneath on the day-to-day level

The Retrospective

[ Release Planning ] Iterations Acceptance Testing Communicating Externally Estimation Releasing Retrospectives Loose Ends

Release Planning Get everyone on board PRD & Project framework Frequent updates

Release Planning Management tests Not “SMART” enough Business-related goals often out of team’s control

Release Planning Release planning without the entire team Everyone not on board Different levels of understanding

Release Planning Customer doing QA’s job Overloads the customer Turns QA into robots Behaviour driven development

Release Planning Thorough story preparation Spirit of a story Mockups Consideration of a story in the context of the release

Release Planning Internal releases Communicates progress Communicates quality Gather feedback with time to react

Release Planning Re-release planning Use yesterday’s weather Do at least once in a project Do when the landscape changes

The Retrospective Release Planning [ Iterations ] Acceptance Testing Communicating Externally Estimation Releasing Retrospectives Loose Ends

Iterations “Linear” Development Ideal, but not realistic You can’t know what you don’t know Communicate well instead

Iterations Micro-managing Require accountability Provide direction Be reasonable

Iterations Communicating business events Gets team emotionally invested Subconscious prioritization, sense of urgency

Iterations Fixed-length iterations Base on story size Don’t be afraid to mix it up

The Retrospective Release Planning Iterations [ Acceptance ] Testing Communicating Externally Estimation Releasing Retrospectives Loose Ends

Acceptance Strict acceptance expectations Collective agreement on requirements Be consistent Be firm!

Acceptance Spend time accepting test cases Story expectation transfer Test brainstorming Decreases subsequent “thrash”

The Retrospective Release Planning Iterations Acceptance [ Testing ] Communicating Externally Estimation Releasing Retrospectives Loose Ends

Testing Dev & QA Pairing Breaks down the fence Decreases “thrash” Whole greater than the sum of its parts

Testing Keeping nightly “A8N” green Infrastructure is fragile Sloppy check-ins Changed the definition of “green” to be 95% passing

Testing Automating tests Over 60% of tests are automated Makes releasing easier & faster

The Retrospective Release Planning Iterations Acceptance Testing [ Communicating Externally ] Estimation Releasing Retrospectives Loose Ends

Communicating externally Translating to the rest of the organization Completely agile organizations do not exist Translate to non-agile departments

Communicating externally Constant & honest communication Frequent updates Honesty – they will find out the truth eventually!

The Retrospective Release Planning Iterations Acceptance Testing Communicating Externally [ Estimation ] Releasing Retrospectives Loose Ends

Estimation Estimation improvement Requires deliberate effort Accountability is key

Estimation “NUTs” (AKA story points) Standardize definition of a story point Decrease chance of misunderstandings

The Retrospective Release Planning Iterations Acceptance Testing Communicating Externally Estimation [ Releasing ] Retrospectives Loose Ends

Releasing Release criteria Know when you’re done Gut feel is still a valid metric!

The Retrospective Release Planning Iterations Acceptance Testing Communicating Externally Estimation Releasing [ Retrospectives ] Loose Ends

Retrospectives Weigh the importance of results Avoid navel gazing

The Retrospective Release Planning Iterations Acceptance Testing Communicating Externally Estimation Releasing Retrospectives [ Loose Ends ]

Loose ends Standardization across teams Teams naturally tend to grow apart Deliberate communication can offset this

Loose ends Lack of domain knowledge on team Ignorance not OK just because you have a domain expert Should keep up on industry Team needs to take an interest!

Loose ends Implementing strong process Agile ≠ no process! Promote positive behaviours Change when appropriate

Loose ends Poster A.D.D Less is more! Make content useful and relevant Regular audits are necessary

Loose ends Addressing tech debt Happens, but isn’t generally planned Continue to build up tech debt Hasn’t hurt us…yet

Loose ends Managing by metrics Ensure metrics will promote desired behaviours Ensure they are actionable

Loose ends Tools to support agile process No tools have done exactly what we wanted Should provide complete visibility Any suggestions?

Loose ends Remove disruptive team members Get the wrong people off the bus Tough, but necessary Don’t be afraid!

Conclusion

Q & A