AgileNCR 2010 conference was held in Gurgaon on 17th & 18th July 2010. This largest community driven conference was the Fourth edition of Agile NCR and was organized in collaboration with ASCI. This time the event was based on four major themes : 'Agile for newbies', ' Agile Adoption Challenges', 'Workshops and Software Craftsmanship', and ' Post Agile'.

2. A Presentation on Product
Owner personas
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4. Chris does not control his
backlog.
Multiple customers input needed for backlog
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5. 0 Great at Herding Customers
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6. He knew the business well
When in Ask
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7. How much time did he spend
with the team
40 %
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8. Wait aren’t Product owners
needed to spend all their time
with their teams
Says- FOCUS ON YOUR CUSTOMER NOT THE TEAMS
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9. POT ? Meets twice a week
Participants:
Inputs: Outputs:
Customer Ideas
One
Roadmap Backlog
Release Plan
Vision
Product
Product Backlog Product Backlog
Velocity User Story Workshops, Cust
Interviews
Product owner Team
Meeting
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10. Says
“My top most priority is the
backlog readiness”
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11. He is quick to decide once data
is available. Takes Calculated
Risks
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12. Team first, Customer First
Attitude
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13. But the most important trait of
all…..
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7/18/2010 13

14. For him..
0Scrum was just a tool
So he wouldn't lose
sleep for a deviation
he took
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15. No Lost in Translation
Encouraged Team To Sign
Up For Really Complex
Stories
0 Teams were allowed to talk to any
customer Directly within a sprint
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16. Says
Its not done until
everything is done
ESP. TESTABLE CODE
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17. Final Thoughts
0 Chris’s teams produce complex software,
ship it and deploy it to multiple
deployment centers across the world
pretty touch free and with Zero Major
Defects – EVERY TWO MONTHS
0 Customers in this case are extremely
satisfied with Chris and his products.
All rights reserved Vibhu Srinivasan
7/18/2010 17

19. A bit about Happy Jen
0 Very approachable product manager
0 The company grew too quickly so Jen
went from one product one team to many
products many many teams quickly.
0 No knowledge of Scrum, but dealt with
teams that were highly scrum aware.
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7/18/2010 19

20. Once upon a time …
0 One Visionary , Big
B, Many followers
0 Developers
developed
whatever Big B
wanted
0 They shipped
whenever
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7/18/2010 20

21. Then came Jen
0 Took over the
product from the
visionary.
0 Built some basic
process like
initial
documentation of
requirements
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22. But
The teams continued to see Jen
as a proxy product owner as
Big B The visionary continued
to directly interact with
teams
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23. Soon product
grew
1
BACKLOG
BIG
1 BACKLOG
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24. Product became a portfolio
01 2 3 4
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25. Jen Pondered !!One or Many
Backlogs?
BACKLOG 1
BACKLOG 2
OR
ONE
BIG
BACKLOG BACKLOG 3
BACKLOG 4
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26. They Chose
0Many
Backlogs
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7/18/2010 26

27. Which then led to the question
??
0 ONE TEAM PER BACKLOG OR MANY TEAMS
PER BACKLOG
0 AND ONE PRODUCT OWNER PER BACKLOG OR
JUST JEN
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28. One Product owner –
Many teams
Worked
on
BACKLOG 1
BACKLOG 2
BACKLOG 3
BACKLOG 4
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28
7/18/2010

29. Soon
0 Happy Jen was not so happy at all
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30. Unhappy Because
0 She lost touch of the products as she was
more busy running to the meetings than
to think about her products
0 She could never establish herself as a
great product owner.
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31. Unhappy Because
0 Every now and then priorities would
change and Jen would have to go though
all the backlogs all over again
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32. End Result
0 The work don’t by all teams came to a
standstill and a new process had to be
found.
0 That led Happy Jen to a new way of
thinking
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33. Take 2 Minutes
0 Take two minutes – talk to you neighbor
and discuss what Jen could have done
differently
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7/18/2010 33

35. A little bit about Paul
0 Paul was the product
owner of a financial
products company
0 He knew this
business damn well
0 The system he set
out to built had
huge financially
ramifications if he
messed it up
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36. How much time did he spend
with the team
1000 %
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37. How much time did he spend
with the customer
1000 %
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38. Paul did not know Scrum or XP.
His teams did
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39. Complex financial algorithms
would be written in a two week
sprint
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7/18/2010 39

40. Guess who was often the pairing
Partner
You are right
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41. Paul would do just in time
design
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42. He would sit and prototype with
the team
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43. The team could constantly
question him on any feature
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44. There would not be a standup
without Paul
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45. After 30 plus Sprints, the team
went from a Scrum mode to
Kanban like approach
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46. Paul was a master of dropping
features not necessary
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47. With Paul, the team felt the joy
of doing work together and
everyone in the team was
appreciated
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48. 0 The system after many years is still in
use and in great shape.
0 Paul meanwhile has gone to do other
things, I am sure he has carried a few
Agilish ideas with him
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49. To Conclude
Your product is
only as good as
your product
owner, choose
them wisely.
0 Understand your product
owner and learn to work
with them closely
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50. Thanks for listening
0 All characters in this presentation are
fictional, any relation to real humans is
simply coincidental
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