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Prioritize Your Backlog!
Great Advice…John Heintz
Founder, Gist LabsSenior Consultant, Cutter Consortium
[email protected] @jheintzhttp://gistlabs.com
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC2
About John Heintz• Developer since 1995• Agilist since 1999• Founded Gist Labs in 2008
• Developer, Mentor, Consultant• Intuitive, Abstract, Precise
Kool-Aids I’ve drank:Agile/Lean/Kanban, OO, TDD, REST, Mentoring, Craftsmanship, Emergent/Progressive Design, InnovationGames®, Systems and Complexity Theory
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC3
Ground Rules•Law of Two Feet: Quietly leave if
you think your time would be better spent elsewhere
•Interrupt me with Questions
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC4
Agile is great!!
•But… Agile alone isn’t everything you need
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC5
Agile is great!!
•But… Agile alone isn’t everything you need
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC6
Vapid
“lacking liveliness, tang, briskness, or force”
Merriam-Webster
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC7
Huh?“a nice sounding goal… that conveys no advice”
me
No clear how, or why
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC8
think desert mirage…
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC9
Let’s think of some examples…
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC10
Prioritize Your Backlog!
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC11
Retrospect!
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC12
Collaborate with your customers!
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC13
All of these:Really Good Ideas
•You absolutely should be doing these
•Most Agile classes, texts, experts say so
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC14
And Yet…
•There is very little actual advice for how to do these things
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC15
My Conclusion is•Agile is great•Some parts of Agile are only the
hint of advice for how to actually do something
•You must fill in those gaps when it’s important for you business/project/team
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC16
How I Judge Tools…
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC17
Concrete Reflective Tools
Tools which are immediately useful, generate feedback from their use, and are backed by their own guiding principles.
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC18
Concrete!
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC19
not AbstractThis is “House in
abstract landscape” by
Franz Mark
You saw that, right?
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC20
Hi, my name is John.I’m an INTJ
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC21
Myers-Briggs Type Indicatoris a psychometric questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how people perceive the world and make decisions.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myers-Briggs_Type_Indicator
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC22
Myers-Briggs Dichotomies
Extraversion (E) - (I) IntroversionSensing (S) - (N) IntuitionThinking (T) - (F) FeelingJudgment (J) - (P) Perception
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC23
Sensing and intuition describe how new
information is understood and
interpreted.
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC24
Individuals who prefer sensing are more likely
to trust information that is in the present, tangible and concrete:
that is, information that can be understood
by the five senses.
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC25
Those who prefer intuition tend to trust
information that is more abstract or
theoretical, that can be associated with other
information
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC26
Here's the kicker: it's not an even distribution.
S-vs-N73.2% is S, 26.8% is N
You can easily lose over half your
audience
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC27
Prioritize Your Backlog!
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC28
What is the Agile advice?
Prioritize your backlog based on customer value
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC29
Prioritize Your Backlog!
How do we measure customer value?What about other stakeholders?
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC30
Prioritize Your Backlog!
We need more that just mandate to do something, even if it’s a good idea.This mandate is vapid, without substance
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC31
Knowledge, Risk, Customer Value
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC32
Knowledge, Risk, Customer Value
1.Know a lot about your customers and solution
2.Keep your risks smaller than the total value of the solution
3.Grow customer value4.GOTO 1
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC33
Validated Knowledge
•Don’t just pretend to know something
•“By what evidence …”
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC34
Priority is a Function•Priority decisions for backlog items
should be based on the current values of•Knowledge•Risk•Customer Value•Effort estimates
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC35
What goes in the Backlog?
Everything•Features/Stories, Chores,
Investigations, Interviews, Training, Conferences,….
•All demands of team capacity•Most (>50%) should be customer
value
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC36
Moving the K/R/CV Dials
•Clearly “User Stories” should increase Customer Value for the project
•What about some other examples?
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC37
Find a Buddy!
•Pair up for discussion
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC38
Quiz
•Which of Knowledge, Risk, Customer Value are changed by:
UX Prototypes
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC39
Quiz
•Which of Knowledge, Risk, Customer Value are changed by:
A/B Testing with partial rollout
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC40
Quiz
•Which of Knowledge, Risk, Customer Value are changed by:
Upgrading a Database (to latest)
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC41
Quiz
•Which of Knowledge, Risk, Customer Value are changed by:
Technical Debt Reduction
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC42
Quiz
•Which of Knowledge, Risk, Customer Value are changed by:
Send Team to User Conference
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC43
Game
•Let’s play a game…
•Pair, pair up (need group of 4)
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC44
Game
•Pick one to be the note taker•The other three are players
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC45
Game
•Rules for the note taker
•PLEASE ONLY NOTE TAKER READ
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC46
Game•You are the silent “observer”•Take notes on•Why someone feels the way they
do•Listen for motivation•Collaborations and trades•“so that …” “in order to…”
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC47
GameGoal: Your team must fill in this
sentence:“We want to order ______ for our main meal, and _____ for our dessert.”
Choose from:American, Italian, Mexican, Middle Eastern, Thai
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC48
Choice Modeling
•We just played a “game” based on the phycology of choice modeling
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC49
Rules for ObserverThese are the rules given to the observers:•Take notes on•Why someone feels the way they
do•Listen for motivation•Collaborations and trades•“so that …” “in order to…”
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC50
•Did you learn about each others preferences?
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC51
•Would you have learned as much by just asking individuals?
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC52
•Now, imagine playing this customers or stakeholders…
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC53
Buy a Featur
e
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC54
Buy a Feature•Innovation Games®•Collaborative Choice Modeling Market
Research•Limited money, work together to buy
•Output: game results, dialog/decisions, sense of buy-in, knowledge, …
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC55
Let’s Wrap Up
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC56
Concrete Reflective Tools
Tools which are immediately useful, generate feedback from their use, and are backed by their own guiding principles.
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC57
Knowledge, Risk, Customer Value
© 2012 Gist Labs, LLC58
Buy a Featur
e
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Prioritize Your Backlog!
Great Advice…John Heintz
Founder, Gist LabsSenior Consultant, Cutter Consortium
[email protected] @jheintzhttp://gistlabs.com