Prioritizing The Product Backlog Aipmm Webinar

©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318

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Real World Strategies for Prioritizing the Product

Backlog

Greg Cohen Principal Consultant

280 Group LLC [email protected]

Ron Lichty Interim VP of Engineering [email protected]

©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318 v20100410 © 2010 280 Group LLC

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Greg Cohen

•  Fifteen years of PM Experience –  Med diagnostics and devices

•  Chiron •  Smith & Nephew

–  Pandesic (SAP and Intel) –  IdealLab! –  Instill

•  Principal Consultant, 280 Group •  Certified Scrum Master •  SVPMA Board Member and former

President •  Author “Agile Excellence for Product

Managers”

About Us

Ron Lichty

•  Twenty years Eng Mgmt Experience –  Apple –  Fujitsu –  Charles Schwab –  Razorfish –  Zone Alarm –  startups

•  Consulting VPE •  Certified Scrum Master •  SDForum Board Member •  Co-Author of next year’s

“Managing the Unmanageable: Rules, Tools & Wisdom for Managing Software People and Projects”


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Prioritizing by value is tough and must be balanced with risk

Risk & Cost

Return

Short term vs long term


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Agenda

•  Overview •  Prioritizing by value •  Mitigating risk •  How to leverage emergent architecture •  Managing costs •  Impact of time on priority


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Prioritize product backlog by business value

•  Determine business value •  Value is often only realized by a collection of features

(e.g. multiple stories that work together) •  Value determination usually

requires judgment •  Individual’s value judgments

based on tacit knowledge


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Return on Investment

•  To your business •  For your customer

©2009 280 Group LLC v20100318

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Market Opportunity Scores

Algorithm: Opportunity = Importance + (Importance – Satisfaction)

Anthony W. Ulwick, What Customers Want, 2005

Desired Outcomes Importance Satisfaction Opportunity

Be able to know if an accessory is compatible with my camera 8.5 2.1 14.9

Minimize the time it takes to find a camera that meets my skills and budget

9.2 7.2 11.2

Be able to track my order from purchase thru delivery 7.3 9.0 5.6


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Buying Features

•  Buy a feature1

–  Create list of features –  Play with 4 to 7 customers at a time –  Price some feature so customers have to pool money

•  Spend $100 of R&D –  Create list of features –  Ask customer to allocate R&D

budget to the list of features

1Luke Hohmann, Innovation Games, 2007. Online version http://innovationgames.com/online-games/


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Subjective Value Determination

•  Set a vision for the product and place each requirement in the context of that vision

•  Establish criteria and rank requirements –  Prioritization Matrix –  Buy-in is reinforced when criteria and rankings are

done as a group activity


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Example Matrix

Note: Cost and Risk still need to be considered


Mitigating Risk

•  Practice Risk-First Development –  Identify project risks –  Weigh the risk

•  your project can tolerate •  your organization can tolerate

–  Give priority to stories and tasks that mitigate unacceptable risk

–  Consistent risk: UI (need to iterate UI)

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Leveraging Emergent Architecture

•  “Gift” features: gifts from development •  Based on:

–  Chartering –  “Commander’s Intent” –  Communicating vision

•  Also based on listening for brainstorms, insights –  Encourage them –  (but stop short of encouraging

out-of-process dev)

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Maximizing technical investment and learning

•  Let your team invest in work with technical pay-off –  Early learning and maximal understanding –  Slash technical debt –  Reduce uncertainty –  Choosing / prioritizing backlog items

that facilitate design to emerge, prove workflow, test architecture

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Managing Costs

•  Collaboration –  Development can provide cost - at least relative

cost –  Product Owner can ask: What can I do to reduce

that cost - to get the ROI I want? •  Splitting •  MMF •  Alternatives

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Impact of time on priority

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Time

Return

Time

Return

Time

Return

Time

Return

High risk

Microprocessor Maintenance Upgrades

New industry standard

Denne & Cleland-Huang, Software by Numbers, 2004


Risk, Return, Cost View

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High Return

Low Return

High Risk Low Risk

Feature 1

Feature 2

Feature 4

= cost

Feature 5

Feature 3


Summary

•  Prioritizing by value is complicated •  Mitigate project risks by doing risk first

development •  At times it makes sense to place a high risk

item before a higher value item •  Need to balance Return, Cost, and Risk •  What you want and what it costs are a

conversation

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Additional Resources

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2. Discussion Groups a)  “LeanPM” Yahoo! discussion group b)  280 Group LinkedIn Group

Agile Excellence for Product Managers by Greg Cohen

3. Free PM Templates www.280Group.com Resources

1. Books

4. Training Agile Product Management Excellence Course •  AIPMM PMEC West Conference, May 24 - 26 •  San Jose, June 11 (www.280group.com, Save 15% AGPME15) •  New York, June 25 (www.280group.com, Save 15% AGPME15)

Prioritizing The Product Backlog Aipmm Webinar

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