Published by Addison-Wesley (March 11, 2010) © 2010
Roman PichlerThe First Guide to Scrum-Based Agile Product Management
In Agile Product Management with Scrum, leading Scrum consultant Roman Pichler uses real-world examples to demonstrate how product owners can create successful products with Scrum. He describes a broad range of agile product management practices, including making agile product discovery work, taking advantage of emergent requirements, creating the minimal marketable product, leveraging early customer feedback, and working closely with the development team.
Benefitting from Pichler’s extensive experience, you’ll learn how Scrum product ownership differs from traditional product management and how to avoid and overcome the common challenges that Scrum product owners face.
Coverage includes
- Understanding the product owner’s role: what product owners do, how they do it, and the surprising implications
- Envisioning the product: creating a compelling product vision to galvanize and guide the team and stakeholders
- Grooming the product backlog: managing the product backlog effectively even for the most complex products
- Planning the release: bringing clarity to scheduling, budgeting, and functionality decisions
- Collaborating in sprint meetings: understanding the product owner’s role in sprint meetings, including the dos and don’ts
- Transitioning into product ownership: succeeding as a product owner and establishing the role in the enterprise
This book is an indispensable resource for anyone who works as a product owner, or expects to do so, as well as executives and coaches interested in establishing agile product management.
Foreword by Jeff Sutherland xv
Foreword by Brett Queener xvii
Preface xix
Acknowledgments xxiii
About the Author xxv
Chapter 1: Understanding the Product Owner Role 1
The Product Owner Role 2
Desirable Characteristics of a Product Owner 3
Working with the Team 7
Collaborating with the ScrumMaster 9
Working with Customers, Users, and Other Stakeholders 10
Scaling the Product Owner Role 12
Common Mistakes 16
Reflection 20
Chapter 2: Envisioning the Product 23
The Product Vision 24
Desirable Qualities of the Vision 25
The Minimal Marketable Product 27
Simplicity 31
Customer Needs and Product Attributes 33
The Birth of the Vision 35
Techniques for Creating the Vision 37
Visioning and the Product Road Map 41
Minimal Products and Product Variants 42
Common Mistakes 43
Reflection 46
Chapter 3: Working with the Product Backlog 47
The DEEP Qualities of the Product Backlog 48
Grooming the Product Backlog 49
Discovering and Describing Items 51
Prioritizing the Product Backlog 54
Getting Ready for Sprint Planning 59
Sizing Items 64
Dealing with Nonfunctional Requirements 68
Scaling the Product Backlog 70
Common Mistakes 71
Reflection 74
Chapter 4: Planning the Release 75
Time, Cost, and Functionality 76
Quality Is Frozen 78
Early and Frequent Releases 79
Quarterly Cycles 81
Velocity 82
The Release Burndown 83
The Release Plan 87
Release Planning on Large Projects 91
Common Mistakes 94
Reflection 96
Chapter 5: Collaborating in the Sprint Meetings 97
Sprint Planning 98
Definition of Done 99
Daily Scrum 100
Sprint Backlog and Sprint Burndown 101
Sprint Review 101
Sprint Retrospective 103
Sprint Meetings on Large Projects 104
Common Mistakes 107
Reflection 109
Chapter 6: Transitioning into the Product Owner Role 111
Becoming a Great Product Owner 111
Developing Great Product Owners 115
Reflection 118
References 119
Index 125