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

2. Agenda How Sophos Vancouver works The Retrospective Conclusion Q & A

3. How Sophos Vancouver Works

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

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

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

7. Dividing up the Product Management duties

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

9. The Retrospective

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

20. Iterations Micro-managing Require accountability Provide direction Be reasonable

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

34. Estimation Estimation improvement Requires deliberate effort Accountability is key

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

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

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

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

39. Retrospectives Weigh the importance of results Avoid navel gazing

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

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

42. 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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

49. Conclusion

50. Q & A