P r o b l e m

Symptoms of a development organization that is not delivering:

•Products are not delivered on time with the quality and features desired by the marketplace. 

•The process of creating products is expensive, slow, and frustrating. 

•Too many features do not work. Too little improvement from release to release.

•Requirements are not complete

A successful business:

•Produces a steady stream of innovative products

•Enters new markets and expands existing ones 

•The product team as a whole performs well together.

•Each team member knows what their job is and can do their job.

Have you moved to SCRUM and not seen the results:

•Releases are not really coming out faster

•SCRUM not fully implemented

•Role definitions are often ad-hoc and power driven

•Product Owner needs decision making support and Governance

•People often do not have the full set of skills to perform their jobs

•The role of Product Management in building products is often not well understood or under siege

Given the changing processes, the following questions are typical:

•How does the Product Manager relate to SCRUM development?

•Who guides the Product Owner?

•Who gets to make the product decisions?

•How are decisions made? How are these decisions appealed?

•What constitutes a reasonable requirements document? Or any specification for that matter.

•What is a reasonable amount of review?

•How do you achieve closure?

Lastly, the changes in product delivery also raise issues that need addressing:

•Am I maximizing my SaaS product?

•Is my SaaS product at risk?

•Am I delivering quality releases more quickly?

•How do I speed up the rest of the company as development gets faster?

•How am I impacting my customers?

S o l u t i o n

The solution involves understanding the current way things are operating and then changing what needs to be changed.  People need to understand and buy into the rules of the road and they need the skill set to do their jobs.  If an organization is to change, it needs to do so in steps.  There are many different potential solutions that depend on where an organization currently is and where it wants to go.  Our model has three phases:

•Assessment of the current state of the organization

•Establishment of Goals and Objectives

•Implementing and Guiding Change

The first step can generally be accomplished quickly through interviews with various team members. The second step requires broad agreement among the leaders, which needs managing. The third phase, Change, takes a little longer and requires a champion in the organization to drive it.

Westerly Consulting can provide coaching and training.

Assessment

It is useful to do the assessment before the goals and objectives phase as people often become very aspirational after the Goals and Objectives are defined which can influence the assessment of the current situation:

1. •    Interviews with your Product Management, Development, Marketing, Support, and IT
   

•Documenting where things are breaking down or causing problems

•If SCRUM is implemented, assess it and how well it is interacting with other functions

•Documenting what is working well and needs to be preserved

•Gauging how various the departments and people see the process

1. •    Delivering recommendations for moving forward
   

2. •    For more advanced groups: performing Value Stream Mapping
   

Goals and Objectives Definition

The next step is typically to define the goals and objectives:

•For the Product Process

•For Product Organizations’ (which can include Product Management, Engineering, Marketing, and Support) 

•For the decision process

•For the key responsibilities and autonomies

•For other organizations that provide services to development

Each group plays a role in the process of creating products, a role that needs to be clearly defined.  The goals and objectives should answer these questions:

•Who makes the different types of product decisions?

•How do Product Managers interact with Product Owners? 

•How do the different departments share the responsibility of defining the product?

•How are decisions reviewed?  Appealed?

•What constitutes sufficient definition in a specification?

Typically, we act as advisers and coaches to the people in the organization taking charge of defining these goals and objectives.

Change

With the assessment complete and the goals and objectives defined the organization is ready to move to making changes.  Key items of and major change:

1. •    A plan with a timetable and milestones
   

2. •    Defining
   

•Active Participation on the part of the management

•Defining concrete  steps to change roles (e.g. power structure)

•Identifying the key leaders who will drive this change.

1. •    Training for individuals who are learning their jobs and roles
   

2. •    Set-up Plan-Do-Act-Change
   

•Requires patience as people adjust to the new roles

Coaching the individuals, monitoring this process, and helping guide and train people are where we can help.