If Everybody’s Happy, You’re Doing It Wrong
So there you are, wrapping up another successful release planning session. Sprints are all laid out for the entire release. All the user stories you can think of have been defined. All the daunting challenges laid down. Compromises have been made. Dates committed to. Everyone contributed to the planning effort fully.
So why isn’t everyone happy? Let’s check in with the product owner: The product owner looks like somebody ran over his puppy. The team? They won’t make eye contact and they’re flinching like they’ve just spent hours playing Russian roulette. What’s up? Well, here’s the dynamic that typically plays out:
The product owner has some fantasy of what they think they will get delivered as part of the release. This fantasy has absolutely no basis in reality, it just reflects the product owner’s hopes for what he/she thinks they can get out of the team (it’s just human nature). This is inevitably far beyond what the team is actually capable of. My rule of thumb? A team is typically capable of delivering about 1/3 of what a product owner asks for in a release. That’s not based on any metrics, its just an observation. However, more often than not, it seems to play out that way.
The team is immediately confronted with a mountain of work they can’t possibly achieve in the time allotted – even under the most optimistic circumstances. It’s their job to shatter the dreams of the product owner. Of course, strangling dreams is hard work. Naturally enough, the product owner doesn’t give up easy. They fight tooth and nail to retain any semblance of their dream.
After an hour, perhaps two, maybe even three or four (shudder), the battle is over.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and speculate that this is no one’s idea of a positive dynamic. But it seems to happen pretty often with agile projects. It sure doesn’t look like much fun. I’m pretty sure this isn’t in the Agile Manifesto. So how do we avoid this kind of trauma?
The product owner needs to be a central part of the team. They need to live with the team, be passionate about the product, and witness to what a team does daily. Fail to engage in any of this and a product owner loses touch with the work the team does and loses the ability to gauge their capabilities. Doing all of this is hard. There’s a reason that the product owner is the toughest job in Scrum.
The team needs to embrace their product owner as an equal member of the team. You have to let them in. Work together. Let go of the roles and focus on the work.
Prepare for the release planning in advance. There is no reason for it to be a rude surprise. Spend time together grooming the backlog together. As a team.
Don’t cave to pressure from upper management. Behind every product owner is a slavering business with an insatiable desire for product. Ooh, did I just write that?
Release planning doesn’t have to be a nightmare. OK, in theory…
#Planning #Agile #ReleasePlanning #softwaredevelopment #management #productmanagement