
Product Backlog Items Life Cycle
Recently, someone asked our community what the life cycle of a user story is and how it differs from that of Epics, Features and Themes. I want to share my reflection on the subject. The first question that popped in my mind was: “Are Product Backlog Items (PBIs) created equal?” …

Product Owners: where to begin?
The Product Owner’s skills and contributions are key factors for the success of Agile software development teams. Here is how the Product Owner’s role is described in the Scrum Guide: The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product resulting from work of the Development Team. How …

Sorry the new Champlain Bridge can’t be built using Agile…
Agility is now indispensable for developing products and services. Indispensable? Really? Perhaps not always. Agile approaches are not the answer to all our woes, and it would be interesting to ask ourselves in which contexts they are most relevant. Why is building a bridge using an Agile approach not a …

Top 3 Impediments to Product Agility
Agile transformations are often initiated by production teams that believe Agility will empower them to deliver better products in a shorter time. Organizations speak of “faster time to market” and “higher quality.” They look at the cost and green-light the proposed transformation. Reality is that often these teams successfully decrease …

The Project Manager is dead; long live the Project Manager!
Agile approaches generally do not talk about Project Managers, though it’s a role found in many organizations that use these approaches. I am certain that they are not there merely as figureheads! I would like us to take the time to reflect on the Project Manager’s place within an Agile …

A Scrum team needs one (and only one) Product Owner
Recently, I presented some of my conclusions after attending (again) the Professional Scrum Product Owner training. As I wrote, the Product Owner’s role remains the vaguest in the Scrum Guide, because it is very dependent on the company in which he evolves. It reads: “The Product Owner is responsible for …

Attending a course, 4 years later . . .
Having joined Pyxis Switzerland a few months ago, I had the opportunity to attend training given by my colleagues. After four years as a Scrum Master and having CSM, CSP and CSD certifications, was it really worthwhile to take Scrum.org’s Professional Scrum Product Owner training? Four years of experience are …

Do we need a Product Owner with Kanban?
Product Owner is a role prescribed by the Scrum framework. It is called “Product” Owner because in a Scrum context, we usually manage a product that is generally a standalone software. The Product Owner’s responsibilities are to maintain a Product Backlog, to keep a channel of communication with the Stakeholders …

The Everyday Agilist asks “What about the Product Owner?”
While I would love to take credit for this question, it actually came from a client. After attending our Agile for Operations course to learn more about Agile practice in a Lean Operations environment, this is exactly what this client asked. It was an especially pertinent question considering we had …

Connecting teams and strategic planning in Agile organizations
This article was initialy published on jesusmendez.ca For the past four months, I have been working within an IT Operations division in one of Montréal’s financial institutions, particularly with people working to support production environments for the rest of the organization’s IT services. It has been a challenging and interesting experience …