Managing Product Development Articles

Reporting Back to Managers in Scrum

By No Responses

A Scrum implementation’s effectiveness hinges on transparent communication between teams and management. As such, reporting progress is crucial, especially when you consider the short-term development cycles being called for. Keeping the management teams informed will ensure that the projects stay on track for deadlines, budgets and features. Having this sort of running communication is duly beneficial because executives can then better gauge the project’s trajectory If the project seems to be misaligned with the business growth strategies (see: not creating revenue), they can realign it or take appropriate actions. Reporting within Scrum is a key component. If all of the involved parties are informed,…

Product Development: Can Agile and Waterfall Play Nice?

Via Sampreshan on No Responses

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In a recent post for Sampreshan, ShriKant Vashishtha says that although the Agile and Waterfall methodology are often pitted against each other in the product development debate, several agile practices can be used to help Waterfall workers. Vashishtha goes on to point out the benefits of some of agile practices can have in Waterfall, without changing the inherent nature of the product and development methodology. (See Creating Competitive Edge With Agile) Standup Standup, Vashishtha  says, takes just 10 minutes but it has a huge impact. “With answering 3 simple questions ‘What I did yesterday?’,…

Scrum: Jeff Sutherland on Going from Done to “Done-Done”

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There can often be more than one in-house opinion on what constitutes “done” at the beginning of a Scrum project. To create a definition that is accepted by every department within a company, certain steps must be taken, says Dr. Jeff Sutherland, CEO of Scrum Inc., in this short video. Jeff Sutherland says that achieving a universal definition of done is necessary for every project. Otherwise, a development team will potentially stake the completeness of a Scrum project on an idea that is rooted in miscommunication. And this isn’t just limited to code, says Sutherland — completeness needs to be a consideration…

Product Marketing Lessons: What Can Infomercials Teach Us?

Via On Product Management on No Responses

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In a recent post for On Product Management, Saeed Khan took a long look at what marketing lessons can be derived from the infomercial model. After watching Pitchmen, a documdrama about infomercial marketers, Khan was inspired to write about the behind-the-scenes ways television direct marketers identify products to promote, develop the pitch and then take the products to market. “While it’s very easy to brush these guys off as selling gimmicky items to uninformed consumers, there are lessons to this marketing strategy to be learned from watching these guys operate,” he writes. Khan lists…

3 Technology Design Mantras that Help Drive True Innovation

Via Fast Company Co.Design on No Responses

Image provided by: andymangold

Plenty of great technology companies have been built by taking an existing product and improving its design or capability. And while there’s nothing wrong with that approach, writes Robert Hoekman Jr. for Fast Company’s Co.Design, it doesn’t do much to really shake up the world and bring true innovation to it. After all, Hoekman Jr. argues, good design comes from incremental improvements based on old standards. Game-changing, groundbreaking design, on the other hand, comes when a company attempts to establish a paradigm so far beyond status quo that it leaves an industry’s…

What Qualities Make for a Great Project Sponsor?

Via At Task Management Blog on No Responses

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Over at the At Task Work Management Blog, Russ Drury recently detailed a list of traits to check off when your company is on the hunt for the best project sponsor, a key component of a rock-solid project management team. In his three years at At Task, Drury writes, he’s seen the best and worst examples of project sponsors. After a discussion with his colleagues on the product management process topic , they came up with the top three attributes: influence, power, and authority. “If a sponsor has one of those it’s OK, if…