What are the Best Practices for Agile/SCRUM Product Management?
Scrum is an agile way of managing of software development project, while Agile software development with Scrum is considered a framework for managing a process.
According to Richard Stobart, “the key attributes to successful Product Management are to understand where the value in your product lies, to be a great communicator and to be decisive and pragmatic in decision making.” I couldn’t agree more. The role of a product manager includes making tough calls and leading your team to producing a valuable product, in addition to understanding the key methodologies backwards and forwards.
Agile/SCRUM practices are implemented in order to improve product management, increasing efficiency and productivity. Most product managers are aware and even utilize this method, however the best practices to implement in order to successfully execute this method is often unclear and can lead to confusion among teams.
I looked to Quora, a fantastic resource I might add, in order to discover how other experts answered the question “what are the best practices for Agile/SCRUM product management?” Each expert who answered the question broke up Agile and SCRUM in order to relay fully comprehensive and useful answers.
I hope you find them helpful, I know I did!
SCRUM
Peter Scharnell
“In Scrum Product Management you should focus on the core duties of being the Product Owner:
· Discover and record stories for the backlog.
· Prioritize stories in the Product Backlog, Release Backlog and Iteration Backlog.
· Determine Release dates and Iteration Dates.
· Develops story details and help the team understand those details.”
To find out more core duties of product owners, read the full answer here
Damien Filiatrault
“Scrum as a methodology is simple and its methods repeatable, but its disciplined and daily practice isn’t necessarily so easy.
Before diving into the best Scrum practices, it helps to remember why Scrum is used? Scrum facilitates communication by creating feedback loops. We want developers to stay in sync with each other and we want the customer to stay in touch with the development team.
We also want to create cycles of development in which the customer can see tangible results and give feedback early. There is nothing like working on a deadline for months only to find out the customer was anticipating a different result. Scrum’s methods are designed to help eliminate gaps in the development team’s understanding of what a customer wants.”
To read more tips that will help you and your team effectively use Scrum methods successfully, click here.
Paul Seibert
“Scrum, as some people already know, is a project management methodology named after a contentious point in a rugby match. The Scrum project management method enables self-organizing teams by encouraging verbal communication across all team members and project stakeholders. At its foundation, Scrum’s primary principle is that traditional problem definition solution approaches do not always work, and that a formalized discovery process is sometimes needed.”
To discover Scrum’s major project artifact Click Here
Agile
(If you’re looking for more expert tips on Agile Product Management, click here for an additional expert interview)
Micah Alles
“The best process is owned by its team, but everyone has to start somewhere. That’s why I drafted this, a template for Atomic Object’s Agile process. It’s designed to be a starting point for our maker teams as they come together to tackle a new project.
There’s a lot left out of the following breakdown, including dev practices (TDD, pairing, CI), design + dev integration and balance, and details on internal team roles. I’ve kept the focus on coordinating what to work on and deliver next in order to achieve a project’s goal.”
Cliff Gilley
“The core of Agile is small iterations, constant work to revise and validate your work, and improve your processes at every checkpoint.
This is very easily applied to Product Management, especially in your specific setting of managing and improving your product backlog.
1. Work in Small Iterations — Identify the current high-priority stories on your backlog, elaborate them, and then identify the next set of high-priority stories.
2. Revise & Validate — Every two weeks or so, look at your prioritization and review it with REAL customers. Make sure that you’re listening to what they’re NOT saying, and use both spoken and unspoken content to revise the priorities on the backlog that you already have. If something that wasn’t elaborated moves up, elaborate it more fully.
3. Improve Your Process — Every two weeks (or whatever your iteration plan is), ask yourself and your teams, ‘What is it that we’re doing right’, ‘What is it that we can improve’, and ‘What should we stop doing RIGHT NOW that’s causing problems’.”
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