Client Interaction Nupul Kukreja, Arlene Williams (MSB) 12 th September

Purpose Breaking the ice Do’s and Don’ts How to get the best out of each other Setting expectations – Work wise – Project wise – Knowledge wise 3

What is the “team”? It’s all “US” or “WE” Not “I” or “THEM” Team = Clients + OnCampus + DEN Whenever we say “team” we mean the “whole team” We’ll allude to “parts” explicitly 4

5 DEN (IIV&V/ IT/CS) OnCampus (IT/CS) Clients (Business) Avoid Pure Knowledge Transfer

Prefer Collaborative Learning 6 DEN (IIV&V/ IT/CS) OnCampus (IT/CS) Clients (Business)

Good Practices The WHOLE team must: – Be on an distribution list (e.g., Google group) – Be included in teleconferences – Have frequent interactions, even if brief – Identify tasks where the client and students (i.e., software engineers) can work together – Say “we” instead of “I” – Go out for lunches/ice-cream and reward yourselves for interim milestones – Focus more on “system usage” than “system development” 7

Why are “you” here? Discuss this as a team (5 minutes) – Students: State 2-3 honest reasons, why you’ve enrolled in 577a Mention if you’ll be continuing to 577b – Clients: Other than having a system built, discuss what other objectives do you seek to have fulfilled? Understand everybody’s expectations so you can see what would make them feel like a “winner” – Will come in handy later! 8

Creative Friction Clients: – Encourage the student teams to say “No” when appropriate Students: – Have sound justifications for the above “No” Team: – It’s okay to disagree – Clarify the differences of opinion – Avoid staying mum (or bitter ) for too long! – Be polite – Language may be a barrier, be accommodating – Avoid conversing in your native language – Remember the mantra: We’re all in this together 9

Get Yourselves a PM As a team decide on who’ll be the project manager – soon! Project Manager: – Note down “minutes” of the meetings and it to the team – If the team members are “stuck” try fix the hurdle to ensure a smooth working – Make sure the team has everything it needs to work smoothly – ask them ever so often – Ensure “everyone” participates in the discussions – Coordinate things/timings with the client and student team members – Stay up-to-date on the status of the team’s progress/schedule and be ready to dive in if the need be 10

PM Don’ts This is just a role name - don’t boss around! You “have” to do work, not a mere spectator Avoid saying “because I said so” Don’t micromanage Don’t commit “on behalf” of the team without everyone’s involvement Don’t shout Don’t just tell the client “because it’s a deliverable” 11

Client “Interaction” Participation in Artifact Creation 13

Client Participation Student teams are not only developers Think of getting consultants who also happen to be developers (or vice versa ) 577ab teaches them to adopt business risks and understanding of the initiative as a whole Just developing the software is not the goal Your participation is paramount, especially with certain artifacts for the “consulting” 14

1. Program Model A model to help articulate and capture ‘program/business vision’ Ease of use for communication amongst stakeholders Helps see the ‘broader vision’ and all encompassing view of the ‘program’ 15

Stakeholders (Who) Initiatives (What) Value Propositions (Why) Beneficiaries (For Whom) Who/what resources are required for ‘executing’ the initiatives Any ‘partner’ department or organization? What are the key activities that must be done to for delivering/ realizing the value propositions/ benefits? Do you need to hire anyone? Why undertake this project/ program? What are the value propositions you seek to satisfy/serve? What are the goals? Who derives value from the project/program? (Usually the customers or end users; can also be project sponsors) Assumptions: Under what assumptions is this model true? Program Model Initiatives that need to be undertaken to help beneficiaries derive value from the expected benefits/value propositions Initiatives that need to be undertaken to help deliver value to the beneficiaries (i.e. “how” will the benefits reach the beneficiaries?) 16

Assumptions: Under what assumptions is this model true? Program Model Stakeholders (Who) Initiatives (What) Value Propositions (Why) Beneficiaries (For Whom) Who/what resources are required for ‘executing’ the initiatives Do you need to ‘partner’ with another department or organization? Do you need to hire anyone? What are the key activities that must be done to for delivering/ realizing the value propositions/ benefits? Why undertake this project/ program? What are the value propositions you seek to satisfy/serve? What are the goals? Who derives value from the project/program? (Usually the customers or end users; can also be project sponsors) CostBenefits What are the ‘costs’ involved for successfully implementing the program? What are the measurable (tangible/intangible) benefits? 17

Assumptions Growing needs of volunteers Continuously growing volunteer pool Increasing activities requiring more volunteers Assumptions Growing needs of volunteers Continuously growing volunteer pool Increasing activities requiring more volunteers Example – Volunteer Management System Stakeholders (Who) Initiatives (What) Value Propositions (Why) Beneficiaries (For Whom)  Developers  Maintainer  IIV & V  Volunteer  Volunteer Coordinator  Supervisor  Develop new volunteer management system  Create web application outreach  Develop improved volunteer management process outreach  Provide training for new job management process  Deploy job management process  Setup work stations for volunteer use  Improved Productivity  Faster volunteer management and less person-to- person time  Improved volunteer management process  Volunteers  Volunteer coordinator  Supervisor 18

Visualizing Causality

Discussion Teams: – Hand over the print outs to your client – Discuss with the client the assumptions behind the “program/business model”: The project/product/program will succeed if and only if ______ is true – 5 minutes – If something is a 0/1 case, it may be a fact, not an assumption: Ex.: Someone should use the system Internet connection is available … 20

Capturing The Requirements Two-step approach employed at 577 – Step 0: Capture Program Model and rank value propositions – Step 1: Break down expected functionality into high level features (a.k.a., Minimum Marketeable Features, MMFs) – Step 2: Decompose each MMF into constituent requirements Requirements captured as user stories All of above, captured, managed & prioritized using Winbook – homegrown tool 21

User Stories We capture ‘software’ requirements as user stories Usually of the form: As a, I can so that Ex.: “As a Consumer I can see my daily energy usage so that I can lower my energy costs and usage” Details conveyed primarily through conversations and formalized via acceptance tests 22

MMFs

Go to Winbook

Discussion Teams – Have the client list out a few requirements in the user story format – Make sure everyone on the team is comfortable discussing in the user story format Clients: We expect you to state the requirements in the user story format all throughout the course, good to practice 5 minutes 26

Winbook Usage De-facto “Project Management” tool in 577 Clients are expected to check Winbook frequently – Add/Update/Modify content – Clarify/Comment on items Avoid falling back to /phone conversations alone 577 staff can ONLY monitor Winbook 27

Business Process Modeling We ask teams to capture the “business process” in a flowchart like format The process to be captured is: How is it done now? – If automating capture manual process – If “new idea” capture how have people managed up until now Necessary to know/understand what changes and how much it impacts existing process (for the better) Provides a much needed “context” for understanding client needs 28

Discussion Clients: – Describe “how things are done now” to your team – Preferably in a step-by-step form – Not too detailed, just a high-level overview Teams: – Capture the above in a flowchart-like notation: 29 Activity Decision 5 minutes

Teams Next week (9/15) – Off Campus – Program Model and Results Chain – Business Process Modeling The week after (9/22) – On campus – 1 st WinWin Session Prioritize Value Propositions MMF decomposition Prioritize MMFs Capturing of initial user-stories The week following (9/29) – On campus – 2 nd WinWin Session Disambiguating user stories Negotiating requirements scope (first cut) 30

Welcome to 577a(b) We hope you enjoy the ride 31