1 Managing Digital Projects Mark Stringer. 2 3 Introductions Who am I? Who are you?

Managing Digital Projects

Mark Stringer

Introductions

• Who am I?• Who are you?

Why are you here today?

• Why are you here?• What are you hoping to learn?

Why am I here today?

• Digital is different• Web is different

Activity: Good/Bad Happy/Sad Project

• What kinds of words and phrases describe a happy project?

• What kinds of words and phrases describe a sad project?

Differing approaches to project management

Why web/digital is different

In-depth look at iterative development

Stories

Estimation

Iterations

Velocity

Meetings

Role of the Project Manager

Managing Digital ProjectsSoftware, Negotiation and Difficult Conversations

Information discovery vs message delivery

What happened

Identity

Feelings

Risk Management/Opportunity Management and other tradeoffs

Choosing Suppliers

Role of Project Manager Revisited

Start from where you are

Digital Project Management is about Dealing with Change

“the problem isn’t change because change is going to happen, the problem is our inability to cope with change” – Kent Beck, Extreme Programming

“Writing software is a creative process, like painting or writing or architecture” - Ken Schwaber – author Software Development using Scrum

Artistic Making

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tsunami/story/0,15671,1381830,00.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/apr/10/somali-pirates-hostage-us-miltary

Web 2.0

Traditional Waterfall Project Management

Specification

Design

Final Product?

Of the important things, choose some that you think you can finish during the iteration

One at a time, work through the things you choose until time is up

Look at the list of things to do and decide which are most important

Those things that you didn’t get done go back on the list of things to do along with any new things to do that you noticed during the iteration

Iterative project approach

An iterative approach

• Don't try to do everything at once• Don’t think you need to know everything

before you start• Do the most important things first• Set a (short) time limit• Learn from each iteration• This is nothing new – it is common to

both artistic making and scientific enquiry

Activity: Waterfall vs Iterative

Task1. Write down three things that are done

using “Waterfall” methods2. Write down three things that are done

“Iteratively”

Activity: Minimum Iteration

Client briefWe want you to put on a production of Romeo and Juliet

TaskCome up with single words or terms that describe each of the constituent parts of a production and write them on post-its

Activity: Minimum iteration

TaskPut your post-its into three piles:1. Absolutely must have2. Would be nice to have3. Would be the icing on the cake

Stories

Estimation

Iterations

Velocity

Meetings

What happened

Identity

Feelings

Choosing Suppliers

Stories

“List all of the things that the system should include and address, including functionality, features and technology.” Ken Schwaber - Scrum

Stories then form the basis of an ongoing dialogue between the client and the development team NOT a concrete specification.

PriorityEffort

Stories: scope, priority, effort

Stories

• Things to do are listed in terms of stories• Each story describes a want or need,

visible to the client• Stories ideally produced with the client

(whether internal or external).

Stories: Client BriefYacht and Boat Modeller Monthly has decided to completely overhaul its on-line presence. The aim is that when people type “model yacht” or “model boat” into a search engine that YBMM.cheapyserve.co.uk is in the top 10 results.

YBMM has decided to make all the articles that are available in its print edition available on-line 4 weeks after they are available on the news stands. It has also decided to make facsimile copies of all of its back issues available and searchable on-line.

However, in order to access all this valuable information, visitors to the site must register for free. Once they have registered, they can rate and comment on articles on the site. From these ratings a “most popular articles of the month” and “most popular articles from the archives” list can be created which should be displayed on the front page of the site.

YBMM will use this list of enthusiasts as a new revenue stream – selling space in a monthly newsletter to its advertisers.

Stories: Story writing

Search for an article Search for a facsimile archive article Make facsimile copies searchable On-line registration Registered Users can comment on articles Registered Users can rate articles Most popular recent article table Most popular archived article table Production of mailing list for newsletter Site Design SEO – Search Engine Optimisation Domain name

Possible stories for YBMM Online

Activity: Extracting Stories

Read through the brief

identify stories by writing them up on index cards

Activity: Extracting StoriesThrills and Swoon OnlineThrills and Swoon have been publishing romance novels since 1928, they sell 2 million books a year. T&S were recently purchased by the multimedia giant Big Corp, Big Corp feel that there is a market for selling T&S books as downloads on line. They are especially interested in publishing T&S's back catalogue and are also interested to use T&S's experience in this market to inform similar attempts to provide on line access to other Big Corp titles.

If people type “Romance Novel” into a Google, the T&S site should be in the top 5 results returned – ideally, in the top 1! People visiting the site will be able to search and browse through titles that are available on line by keyword and by sub-genre e.g. Hospital, Historical, Military, Supernatural. Some titles will be available for free. But ONLY after visitors to the site have registered and provided their details. Some other titles will require payment protected by Digital Rights Management.

Thrills and Swoon have a mailing list of over a million women worldwide, half of whom regularly by romance books by mail order. They want to bring this community on line, giving them the opportunity to write reviews of the books, give the books a five star rating and recommend them to friends.

The aim is that the site will make money by selling advertising space to advertisers interested in targeting the readership of T&S novels. Banner advertising will be provided by another of Big Corp's companies, the Ab Fab Ad company.

PriorityEffort

Stories: Prioritisation

*** Must haves** Nice to haves* Icing on the cake

Search for an article ***Search for a facsimile archive article (is this different?) ***Make facsimile copies searchable ***On-line registration ***Registered Users can comment on articles **Registered Users can rate articles **Most popular recent article table *Most popular archived article table *Production of mailing list for newsletter *Site Design ***SEO – Search Engine Optimisation **Domain name **

PriorityEffort

Stories: Effort

Estimated in points: 1 point = 0.5 days

Search for an article *** Search for a facsimile archive article*** Make facsimile copies searchable*** On-line registration *** Site Design *** Registered Users can comment on articles ** Registered Users can rate articles ** Most popular recent article table * Most popular archived article table * Production of mailing list for newsletter * SEO – Search Engine Optimisation ** Domain name **

Activity: priority

1. Prioritise each story with client (Mark will pretend to be the client)

*** = must have** = nice to have* = icing on the cake

Stories

Estimation

Iterations

Velocity

Meetings

What happened

Identity

Feelings

Choosing Suppliers

Estimation

Highs and Lows - the Geometric mean

• What’s the shortest possible time that this could take?

• What’s the longest time that this could take (use the same units).

Estimate = A x B

Highs and Lows - the Geometric mean: Worked

Example, Thrills and Swoon

• What’s the shortest possible time that this could take? A week - 5 days.

• What’s the longest time that this could take (use the same units). A year - 200 days

Estimate = 5x200

Estimate = 1000

= 30 days

Activity: Estimation

Estimate:How many people visit Amazon.com each day

How many books there are in the UK

How many trees there are in the UK

How many bees there are in the UK

Say how comfortable you feel about each estimate?

Planning Poker

Coffee?1004020138

53211/20

Activity: Estimation

Using planning poker to estimate the number of points that each of the stories that you identified will take.

Review: Stories

What are the three variables that make up stories?What is the difference between a story and a specification?

PriorityEffort

Iterations

Identify an Iteration

• What is the minimum list of useful things you can complete in a specified time period?

• Whole team negotiates which stories should be completed in the next iteration

• Client negotiates with team members about scope, priority and effort of stories

• Time-boxed meeting to identify the iteration

• Give it a name

• WORKING SOFTWARE as soon as possible

Iteration 1

Example: Identify an Iteration

Search for an article *** 5 points Search for a facsimile archive article*** 5 points Make facsimile copies searchable*** 20 point On-line registration *** 5 points Domain name ** 5 points Site Design *** 20 points Registered Users can comment on articles ** 14 points Registered Users can rate articles ** 20 points Most popular recent article table * 10 points Most popular archived article table * 5 points Production of mailing list for newsletter * 10 points SEO – Search Engine Optimisation ** 30 points

Activity: iteration

Task• You have 20 points to spend (1 week for 2

people)• Decide on what stories will make up the

first iteration and agree this with your client (Mark)

Types of tests

• What is a test?– It is the thing that allows you to know when you are

done• Teams may contain dedicated testers whose job

is to run the tests• Technical

– Pass or fail test (can be automated)• Non-technical

– Pass or fail criteria (e.g. client sign off)• What if a test fails?

– If a task hasn’t passed it’s test by the end of the iteration then it is counted as ‘not done’

Example: Iterations and tests

Iteration 1

Search for an article *** 5 pointsTest:1) Enter a search term for the article in the page 2) Press search button3) a results table is returned containing the appropriate articles for the search term.

Search for a facsimile archive article*** 5 points Make facsimile copies searchable*** 20 point On-line registration *** 5 points

Activity: write some tests

Task• Write tests for the stories in your first

iteration• Hand over stories to Mark

Review: tests

What is the role of tests?What happens if the tests are not completed?

Stories

Estimation

Iterations

Velocity

Meetings

What happened

Identity

Feelings

Choosing Suppliers

Velocity

? ?Know your velocity

Velocity

• Velocity is project specific and can change from iteration to iteration

• Calculate velocity: how many story points did you actually deliver in the last iteration?

• How does this compare to what you said you would do?

EA Spouse

The blog post that cost the one of the world’s biggest games company in the world $100

Example: Estimated vs. Actual Velocity

Start of iteration

Estimated velocity = 40 points

End of iteration

Actual velocity = 20 points

Search for an article *** 5 points Search for a facsimile archive article*** 5 points Make facsimile copies searchable*** 20 point On-line registration *** 5 points Domain name ** 5 points

Review: velocity

How do we calculate the velocity of an iteration?How do we know the total development points that there are to ‘spend’ on the next iteration?

Activity: Velocity and the second iteration

1. Work out the current velocity of the project

2. Choose stories for the second iteration using the current project velocity

Activity: Client changes their mindEvents

After several years of tortuous negotiations, Big Corp have finally arrived at a deal with Orinoco.com, the world leader in on line book sales. Big Corp executives have been happy with the way that the Thrills and Swoon on line project is going and would like to use the Thrills and Swoon on line site as a pilot for their partnership Orinico.com. As well as being offered the opportunity to download the back- catalogue of Thrills and Swoon, visitors to the site will be given the opportunity to purchase the book via Orinoco.com's “publish on demand” service (having entered their payment details, a paperback copy of the book of their choice will be printed especially for them). Orinoco.com's pubish on demand service will now be integrated into the Thrills and Swoon online site.As part of the deal, Orinoco have also agreed to provide access to their own database of the German Gothic Romances owned by the company Shmaltz und Zucker. This means that the entire site will need to be made capable of translation into German (it's well know, that on average German translations are one and a half times the length of English, so this may well affect the design).Task1. Extract more stories2. Negotiate new priorities with client (Mark)3. Visit the other team and compare

Stories

Estimation

Iterations

Velocity

Meetings

What happened

Identity

Feelings

Choosing Suppliers

Meetings

Types of Meetings

• Story extraction• Daily stand ups• Iteration planning meetings• Client demo• Client feedback meetings

Meetings: story extraction

• Story extraction initiates the project and continues throughout

• Must be done with the product owner• There should be a single product owner,

the person who gets client agreement over what the stories are and has the power to prioritise for the client (they can be client or delivery side)

Meetings: daily stand up

• Time boxed – 15 minutes• Same time, same place, everyday (but in

real world, can be online)• Mustn’t be silent!• Everybody talks• What did I do yesterday?• What am I doing today?• What obstacles are there?

Meetings: iteration planning meetings

• Time-boxed – to be agreed by team• Reschedule if not complete when time box

finishes• Product owner must be present

– If the client can’t be there, appoint a product owner

• Outcome: prioritised, effort estimated stories to be delivered in a fixed time scale (iteration)

Meetings: pigs and chickens

• Fry up: the chicken is involved but the pig is committed

• Ideally you only want pigs• If pigs and chickens are

present, only pigs can contribute, chickens can listen in

Meetings: client demo

• Demo working software or completed non-software tasks

• Figure out how to demo deep technical functions and ‘invisible’ technical work

• If it can’t be demonstrated it is not finished

Meetings: client feedback meetings

• Can be at the end of a demo meeting or at the start of a new iteration meeting but must be time-boxed

• Listen carefully• Feedback may lead to new stories (scope,

priority, effort)

Role of project manager

• Run Meetings• Keep the chickens at bay• Keep people focused on iteration stories• Make sure that if a story is finished, it is

really finished• Deal with obstacles that distract team

members

Review: Meetings

1. What are the different types of meetings we’ve discussed?

2. Who runs the daily stand up?3. What is the difference between the

chicken and the pig?

Recap: role of project manager

• Run meetings• Keep the chickens at bay• Keep people focused on iteration stories• Make sure that if a story is finished, it is

really finished• Deal with obstacles that distract team

members

Activity: Stand-up meeting

TaskRead your card and attend the meeting!

Feedback on meetings activity

1. How did you find the stand up meeting?2. Was the time-boxing useful?3. Do you get a sense of why having these

meetings daily is useful?

Review: Managing Digital Projects?

• What is the difference between iterative and waterfall development?

• Stories – what are the three variables?

• Why is prioritisation essential?

• Suggest some ways of coming up with estimates for a project?

• How do you know when you're done?

• How do you know what the velocity is for your next iteration?

• Who runs meetings?

Stories

Estimation

Iterations

Velocity

Meetings

What happened

Identity

Feelings

Choosing Suppliers

Stories

Estimation

Iterations

Velocity

Meetings

What happened

Identity

Feelings

Choosing Suppliers

Project Management is about Difficult Conversations and

Negotiation

“Getting to Yes” What is your BATNA? Best

Alternative to a Negotiated Agreement?

Improve your BATNA

Side to side rather than face to face

Make the pie bigger.

Concentrate on interests rather than positions

20 Million copies sold

Difficult Conversations

Facts Feelings

Identity

Stories

Estimation

Iterations

Velocity

Meetings

What happened

Identity

Feelings

Choosing Suppliers

Move from Message Delivery to Information Discovery

Facts Feelings

Identity

We often get stuck in what appears to be a factual conversation the “What

happened” or “What should happen” - “What went wrong?”

“Who’s to blame?”

Identity

Facts Feelings

The “Facts” conversation is an easier place to hide than being forced to investigate feelings

and identity.

Identity

Facts Feelings

Assumption: We have perfect access to the motives of the

people we are talking to

Identity

Facts Feelings

Assumption: our motives are pure – we give ourselves the

benefit of the doubt

Identity

Facts Feelings

Blame results in justification and counter accusation.

Suddenly the problem becomes how to justify

yourself and avoid blame, the real problems become

obscured.

Identity

Facts Feelings

Blame versus Contribution: how did each party contribute to this

situation?

Identity

Facts Feelings

The “and” stance. Try to understand how both sides contributed to the problem

Identity

Facts Feelings

Facts Exercise

Think of a discussion in your experience that appeared to be about facts, but wasn’t. What was it really about?

Identity

Facts Feelings

Stories

Estimation

Iterations

Velocity

Meetings

What happened

Identity

Feelings

Choosing Suppliers

Facts Feelings

Identity

Facts Feelings

Identity Issues

Appreciation: everybody, but everybody wants to feel appreciated (this includes your boss, your client).

Affiliation: we form gangs and cliques and teams automatically – what team are they on? Can they be on yours?

Identity

Facts Feelings

Identity Issues

• Autonomy: nobody likes being told what to do. Danger of learned helplessness.

• Status (vs Territory) all conversations are status conversations. Threats to status or territory can result in violent responses!

• Role - what do you see yourself as? What don’t you see yourself as? “It’s not my job to…”

Identity

Facts Feelings

What are the identity issues of the people you're talking to?

What are your identity issues? The better you understand both, the better the conversation will

Identity

Facts Feelings

How can you complexify your identity using the ‘and

stance’?Example: I’m a clever hard working Java programmer,

AND there are a lot of things I don’t know AND I don’t always

get everything right.

Identity

Facts Feelings

Identity Exercise

Make a list of 5 people who you really admire

Make a list of 5 people who you really don't admire – write down one word of

explanation for each

Identity

Facts Feelings

Stories

Estimation

Iterations

Velocity

Meetings

What happened

Identity

Feelings

Choosing Suppliers

Facts Feelings

Identity

Assumption: We have direct control over our feelings

Identity

Facts Feelings

Assumption: We don’t talk about feelings when we talk

about business

Identity

Facts Feelings

Feelings - The Science Bit

You're scared or angry before you even know why (it's possible you could never know why).

Amygdala -> Cortex lots of connections

Cortex -> Amygdala few connections

You can't tell yourself (or anybody else to calm down).

Identity

Facts Feelings

Feelings are triggered by past experiences and identity

issues.

Identity

Facts Feelings

If you have a more complex understanding of what you hold important about your

identity (and you who actually are), this can give you better

control over your feelings.

Identity

Facts Feelings

Feelings - The Science Bit (continued)

When you're scared/angry, you're thinking like a lizard

“Scared people don’t learn”

Only real way to get over a fear is to put yourself in the scary/angering situation over and over again.

You might be able to affect yourself indirectly using the autonomic system (body language/voice tone). Relaxation techniques, connecting with your breath aren't necessarily new age hooey.

Getting “Fresh air”/going for a walk can help.

Identity

Facts Feelings

If you don't have your feelings, they will have you

People aren't that good at detecting lies about matters of fact

People are very good at detecting lies about emotional state

If you don't talk about what you're talking about you'll get nowhere – or somewhere worse!

Identity

Facts Feelings

If you don't have your feelings, they will have you

Back-handed comments and sarcasm are disastrous - don’t do it.

Expecting people to be “sensitive/psychic” is your problem.

Unexpressed feelings make it nearly impossible to listen.

Unexpressed feelings attack identity.

Identity

Facts Feelings

Show them – and let them hear that you're listening

Don't paraphrase

Parrot phrase

Use their exact words

Doesn't matter so much that you share their feelings, so long as you know show them that you know what they are.

Use William Goldman's technique, write it all down

Identity

Facts Feelings

Feelings hide: attributions (of mental illness?), characterisations (he’s just a bastard) and problem solving (the real problem is that we have no detailed plan) are all ways to hide feelings.

Identity

Facts Feelings

Feelings Exercise

What kind of things really upset you at work? What causes this? Is it

some kind of identity issue? Does it relate to some previous bad

experience?

Identity

Facts Feelings

The Bad NewsNo “Quick Fix” to dealing with difficult

conversations, exhortation won't do it.Can only learn how not to be

angry/scared by being in the situations that anger/scare you and responding to them differently.

“Muscle memory”

Identity

Facts Feelings

“Do you guys understand that when they jump you in an alley, it's too

late to train?”David Allen, author, Getting Things

Identity

Facts Feelings

The Good News: Things can dramatically improve with practice and preparation.

Practice can be done in a safe environment where nobody gets

Identity

Facts Feelings

“Fight in a box”

“Fight in a box”• After 2 iterations a “difficult situation has arisen” - what is it.

• Form two teams, one team represents the software developers, one team represents the client (internal or external).

• Each team elects a negotiator and puts together a back story. This includes:

• Things about the team that the other side don’t know. Identity issues about the negotiator - appreciation, affiliation, autonomy, status, role.

•Each side takes a card and uses it to direct the discussion.

Stories

Estimation

Iterations

Velocity

Meetings

What happened

Identity

Feelings

Choosing Suppliers

Risk Management

Risk Management Activity

Choosing suppliers

• What are you doing when you buy something you know about? Can you do any of that here?

• Identify trade-offs• Find somebody who’s done something

similar before• Who will be doing the work?

– Which country will they be in?– Are they full time/contract/self-employed?

• What channels of communication are available?

Role of the project manager revisited

• Role of project manager is to take responsibility

• Project Management is the interface between the business interests of the client and the technical capabilities of the implementing team

• Project manager needs to speak both languages

• Project manager must be willing to have difficult conversations

Stories

Estimation

Iterations

Velocity

Meetings

What happened

Identity

Feelings

Choosing Suppliers

What next? Identifying a series of steps for day 3

Discussion: start from where you are

Some options for getting going• What difficult conversations are you avoiding?

• How would you prepare for them?

• Plan in terms of stories

• Prioritising stories

• Least minimum iteration

• Design incrementally

• Working prototype

• Check velocity

Activity: Start from where you are

Task• Take 25 minutes of concentrated activity. Write a list of

“stories” - everything that you think of that you could do to improve project management in the place where you work

• What difficult conversations are you avoiding?

• We have six weeks before we come back together - how many iterations could you do in that time?

• Put together the first iteration - give it a name.

1 Managing Digital Projects Mark Stringer. 2 3 Introductions Who am I? Who are you?

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