Attila Buturla

According to the Scrum alliance the Product Owner is "a single person must have final authority representing the customer's interest ...". They are often described as a product visionary, and also as someone that has a lot of influence within an organization. That is to say that they are the final arbiter for the product. In short this individual has a tremendous responsibility and in many ways are responsible for the success (or failure) of the product. Unfortunately, in my experience, this is not how the the role is implemented. I believe a lot of this has to do with how software projects were run in the past. I've seen several common variations of how they they are often fulfilled. The first being the PO believes that they need to perform more as a Project Manager. They focus more on control, and trying to manage the team. This often comes from people with experience from pre-agile days that either don't fully understanding how the role is meant to implemente...

Over the last 17 years of my career I'd like to think that I've learned a lot. I've learned from positive role models, from experience of what works well, by studying my craft, and from my own trials and tribulations. However, I believe the lessons that I have learned that had the biggest impact is learning from failures. One such failure occurred at a previous employer. By telling the story of a past failure, we can reflect and see what can be learned from it. No names will be mentioned, no embellishment or poetic license will be will used. As a matter of fact, I will make every attempt to be objective and accurate as possible. The truth of the matter the story doesn't need it; it speaks for itself. Some time ago I worked for a company that, among other things, had a software product. There was a small team of software developers, and someone that acted as the manager of the team. I was brought on board, as a software engineer, to help with the software product as ...

I was first made aware of Mob Programming well over a year ago. While I've always felt that you can do great work in collaborative environments, I have to admit that at first I was somewhat skeptical of the idea. How could having the entire team work on one thing at a time be as productive as everyone working in parallel?  Having said that I considered myself open minded and am always willing to give something a chance. As mentioned previously, I've had great experiences working collaboratively in teams. In the past I worked on a large team making complex software, and our best work was produced after designing as a group with white boarding sessions and intensive debates about best approaches. I had also worked for a Credit Union, and worked hand in hand with the business to help come up with ideas on how to best utilize technology to solve their business challenges. Only by collaborating as partners were were able to come up with practical solutions that properly addressed...

The hashtag #NoEstimates was originated by Woody Zuill for "exploring alternatives to estimates [of time, effort, cost] for making decisions in software development." What began as a conversation between a few people ( Woody , Neil Killick , and Vasco Duarte ) grew into a much larger discussion. As the year 2015 is now over, let's take a look back at what we learned from the discussion. A lot of different people have participated, each bringing their own unique views and experiences. There is no single "#NoEstimates view"; what one person says doesn't represent the rest of the group. Some argue that estimates should be used more sparingly, others never at all, and yet others that suggest that only under certain circumstances . Despite the differences, there seems to be consensus on the following key points: Software project often fail. Perhaps the use (or misuse) of estimates play a role in this. Estimates are often turned into commitments. This mech...

Recently I was reading a discussion on Twitter about software projects, and it reminded me of something. Many years ago I had a conversation with my dad about moving. After just having moved, he wasn't too pleased with the moving experience. He mentioned that there was essentially two models that movers operated under. The first was you paid a fixed price for the move. I don't remember the exact details, but the movers quoted a price most likely along the lines the square footage of the house, or some similar metric. The other model, was simply to pay the movers for their time. If it took them 20 hours to complete the move, you paid for those 20 hours. Now the catch was, as he described it, if you paid for a fixed price the movers didn't really put a lot of care into the move. They simply wanted to get the job done as quickly as possible. I seem to recall that if they broke something, they would reimburse you. However, that wasn't a pain free process. More importantl...

Software development methodologies have evolved significantly over the past several decades. They once involved a lot of upfront, detailed planning sometimes taking more time than actually writing the software. Today the focus is on building software in small increments, in part to quickly validate assumptions. While some level of planning does occur, we assume less and validate more. When done right, it focuses on maximizing value and as a result eliminates waste. Another significant change is a shift from top down, command and control style project management, to self managing teams. Teams work with a product owner, and in many ways are equals in terms of suggestions and ideas on how improve the product. While the product owner most often has the final say, it is considered a collaborative effort. For best results both parties need to work together to form a cohesive unit. This in stark contrast to the team simply following orders from above. The need to be able to deliver so...

According to a study by CEB Research, 70% of software projects are delivered on time, but only on 38% meet stakeholder's expectations. In most cases the people that use your software will not even be aware of internal project deadlines. Case in point, think of all of the software the you use everyday. You are rarely aware of what the due date was. However, what you do notice is how well the software does it's job. It's it's of low quality, you'll very likely notice right away. Even if it appears to be of high quality, if it doesn't provide any major value to you, chances are you still stop using it. With that in mind, then why do many software projects today have a set scope and a hard due date? When building software for a customer, it's only natural for them to what to know what exactly they are going to get and what is will cost them. That is a very reasonable thing to want to know. Even when developing software internally, there are often similar expe...