a tester’s guide to collaborating with product owners
DESCRIPTION
The role of the Product Owner in Scrum is only vaguely defined—owning the Product Backlog and representing the “customer.” In many organizations, Product Owners go it alone, trying their best to represent business needs to their teams. What’s often missing is a collaborative connection between the teams’ testers and the Product Owner—a connection in which testers help to define and refine requirements, broaden the testing landscape and align it to customer needs, provide a conduit for collaboration between the customer and the team, assure that the team is building the right thing, and help demonstrate complete features. This relationship is central to the team and facilitates transparency to help gain feedback from the entire organization. Join seasoned agile coach Bob Galen as he shares techniques for doing just this. Return with new ideas and techniques for helping your Product Owner and team deliver better received and higher value products—not just by testing but by fostering collaboration.TRANSCRIPT
rent Session
Presented by:
Bob Galen Vel rs
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340 Corporate Way, Suite Orange Park, FL 32073 888‐2
T7 Concur4/8/2014 12:45 PM
“A Tester’s Guide to Collaborating with Product Owners”
ocity Partne
300,68‐8770 ∙ 904‐278‐0524 ∙ [email protected] ∙ www.sqe.com
Bob Galen Velocity Partners
An agile methodologist, practitioner, and coach based in Cary, NC, Bob Galen helps guide companies in their adoption of Scrum and other agile methodologies and practices. Bob is a principal agile evangelist at Velocity Partners, a leading agile nearshore development partner; president of RGCG; and frequent speaker on software development, project management, software testing, and team leadership at conferences and professional groups. He is a Certified Scrum Coach, Certified Scrum Product Owner, and an active member of the Agile and Scrum Alliances. In 2013 Bob published Scrum Product Ownership–Balancing Value from the Inside Out. Reach him at [email protected].
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A Tester’s Guide to Collaborating with Product Ownerswith Product Owners
10 Keys to Delivering Value
Bob GalenPresident & Principal Consultant
RGCG, LLC [email protected]
IntroductionBob Galen
Independent Agile Coach (CSC) at RGCG, LLC
Principle Agile Evangelist at Velocity Partnersp g g y
Somewhere ‘north’ of 30 years overall experience ☺Wide variety of technical stacks and business domainsDeveloper first, then Project Management / Leadership, then TestingSenior/Executive software development leadership for 20 yearsPracticing formal agility since 2000XP, Lean, Scrum, and Kanban experienceFrom Cary, North CarolinaConnect w/ me via LinkedIn and Twitter @bobgalen
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Connect w/ me via LinkedIn and Twitter @bobgalen
Bias Disclaimer:Agile is THE BEST Methodology
for Software Development…However, NOT a Silver Bullet!
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Outline – Myths & Realities
Introduction1 Bridge stories1. Bridge stories2. Help write Acceptance Tests3. DoD accountability4. Be the customer5. Ask questions6. Triad everywhere7. Cost of quality8 C t f t ti
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8. Cost of testing9. Backlog as a “plan”10. Take the PO to lunch
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Simple pattern: The Product Owner ‘Owns’ the Product Backlog
Who owns the Backlog?
Backlog
Essential pattern
It Takes a Village to ‘Own’ the Backlog
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4 Quadrants of Product Ownership
1. Product ManagerProduct Roadmap
3. LeaderTrade-offs product balanceProduct Roadmap,
Collateral, Business Case / ROIDriving customer value
2. Project ManagerProduct Backlog (WBS)
Trade offs, product balanceStakeholder “management”Member of the team; partner with the Scrum Master
4. Business Analystg ( )Grooming & look-aheadVelocity-based, Release PlanningGoal setting, Budget
4. Business AnalystStory writingAcceptanceEmergence; Spikes
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#1, Bridge stories from Team to the Product Owner
The key here is guidingThe key here is guiding the translation and execution of the user story
Pull the Product Owner into the sprintShow incremental code
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Shepherd sign-off
3 Amigos-based interactionsNail the Demo
#1, Bridge stories from Team to the Product Owner
Coined by George DinwiddieSwarming around the User Story by:
Developer(s)Tester(s)Product Owner
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During “Grooming, Sprint Execution, Until…”Done”Similar to Ken Pugh’s -Triad
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#2, Help write solid Acceptance Tests
Consider themConsider themas “mini-contracts” or “mini-UAT”
3-5 minimal per storyBusiness constraintsFunctional and non-functional
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functionalEdge and error cases Provide hints:
Design & Test
#2, Help write solid Acceptance Tests
As a dog owner, I want to sign-upg g pfor a kennel reservation over Christmas so that I get a confirmed spot
Verify individual as a registered pet ownerVerify that preferred members get 15% discount on basic service
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Verify that preferred members get 25% discount on extended servicesand reservation priority over other membersVerify that past Christmas customers get reservation priorityVerify that declines get email with discount coupon for future servicesVerify that sign-up process takes less than 4 minutes
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#3, Hold everyone “accountable” to Definition of Done
It all starts in GroomingIt all starts in Grooming, thinking of the work cross-functionally and with DoD in mindContinue it in Sprint PlanningExecute consistently; no
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Execute consistently; no exceptionsDeliver to “Done”
Ready-Ready
Prevents teams from taking on
The story is well-written; and has a minimum of 5 Acceptance Tests definedThe story has been sized to fit the teams velocity & sprint length: 1-13 pointstaking on
stories that are ill
groomed or defined
The team has vetted the story in several grooming sessions—it’s scope & nature is well understood If required, the story had a research-spike to explore (and refine) it’s architecture and design implicationsThe story is not “too complete”, around ~70% completeThe team understands how to approach the testing of the stories’ functional and non-functional aspectsAny dependencies to other stories and/or teams have been “connected” so that the story is synchronized and
Increases sprint success
been connected so that the story is synchronized and deliverableThe story aligns with the Sprints’ Goal and is end-to-end demonstrableIf a “Technical Story” the story has a “Technical PO” to provide guidance and sign-off
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#4, Represent the Customer
Don’t solveDon t solve “requirements”…solve “customer problems”Consider usageKISSDeliver value; highest i t & i it
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impact & priorityEnd-to-end solutions
#4, Represent the Customer
The power of a MinimalThe power of a Minimal Marketable FeatureThe power of the PersonaObserve the Customer
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Nordstrom Innovation Lap: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szr0ezLyQHY
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#5, Ask questions?Be inquisitive?
Ask questionsAsk questionsRelentlessly, Constantly, Courageously
5 – WhysBusiness value?Lean investment
Just enough and just in
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Just enough and just-in-time
Trust your instincts, craftDoes it make sense?
#5, Ask questions?Be inquisitive?
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#7, What about the Cost of Quality?
Meta-requirementsMeta requirementsSecurity, Performance, Maintainability
Automation investmentsAgile Automation Triangle
Inspections – pairingDoD maturity
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DoD maturityAvoid rework?
Yes for product, no for experiments
Quality is a TEAM responsibility!
A Tapestry that Includes Threads for…
Things to do… DeploymentRegulatory
Features Value incrementsArchitectureDesignProcessQuality
g yDependencyRiskFeedbackCustomer timingTempo
QualityTesting
In a Context-Based fashion…
…Guiding us towards customer value
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#8, What about the Cost of Testing?
Risk-basedRisk basedAlways test what’s availableDon’t track coverage or timeSlack time for thinking &
ti it
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creativityBalanced across the quadrants
3 Pillars of Agile Quality
Development & Test Automation
• Pyramid-based Strategy: (Unit + Cucumber +
Software Testing
• Risk-based testing: Functional & Non-Functional
Cross-Functional Team Practices
• Team-based Pairing
Selenium)
• Continuous Integration
• Attack technical infrastructure in the Backlog
• Visual Feedback –Dashboards
• Actively practice ATDD and BDD
• Test planning @ Release & Sprint levels
• Exploratory Testing
• Standards – checklists, templates, repositories
• Balance across manual, exploratory & automation
• Stop-the-Line Mindset
• Code Reviews & Standards
• Active Done-Ness
• Aggressive Refactoring of Technical Debt
• User Stories, “3 Amigo” based Conversations
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• Whole Team Ownership of “Quality”• Building it ‘Right’; Building the ‘Right’ Thing
• Healthy – Agile Centric Metrics• Center of Excellence or Community of Practice
• Strategic balance across 3 Pillars; Assessment, Recalibration, and Continuous Improvement
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#9, The Backlog is a “Plan”help focus it towards Release!
Ask for and define aAsk for and define a Release TrainEncourage Release PlanningEstablish “hardening” activitiesI t ti il t
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Integration milestones –working code
Release Train Management
Iterative model with a release targetg
Product centricFocused on a production push/release
Synchronized Sprints across teams
Some teams are un-synchronized, but leads to less efficient cross-team (product)
Notion of a “Hardening Sprint”Focused more on Integration & Regression testingAssumption that it’s mostly automatedEnvironment promotion
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(p )interactions
Continuous Integration is the glue
Including automated unit and feature tests; partial regression
Define a final Hardening Sprint where the product is readied for release
Documentation, Support, Compliance, UAT, Training
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3 Tiered, Multi Method (Kanban & Scrum)Enterprise Workflow
Inception Construction TransitionElaborationEpicEpic
Epic
Kanban @Portfolio-level
Arch & Design Build & Test Cont. DeployAnalysis
Feature
Feature
EpicEpic
FeatureFeature
Feature
FeatureFeature
Kanban @Project-level
Product Backlog
Story Task
TaskTask
Task
TaskTaskTask
Sprint Backlog WIP Done
StoryStory
Story
Story
Story
Story
Scrum @Execution-
level
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#10, Get to know your Product Owner
Have lunchHave lunchDiscuss the competitive landscape, the MarketCustomer challengesMoSCoW in operationCommitments &
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PressureVision & Mission; what does “success” look like?
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Wrapping up…
Helping the Product Owner to build the “Right Thing”And
Helping the Team to build “Things Right”
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Contact Info
Bob GalenPrincipal Consultant,
RGalen Consulting Group, L.L.C.
Experience-driven agile focused training, coaching & consulting
Cell: (919) [email protected] www.rgalen.com
[email protected] www.velocitypartners.net
BlogsBlogsProject Times - http://www.projecttimes.com/robert-galen/BA Times - http://www.batimes.com/robert-galen/
Podcast on all things ‘agile’ - http://www.meta-cast.com/
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