This month we will geek out on advanced process concepts, stuff you can find in Don Reinertson's Principles of Product Development Flow.
It's a very different (and rigorous) way to think about engineering process.
This post is a great illustration of some of the concept (recommended reading)
Agenda:
Talk #1. Deadlines vs. Sad-lines: Using Cost of Delay to Understand Your Customer's Real Priorities by Jonathan Hansen, EVP Operations @ Thumbtack technology
Talk #2. TBD by Phil Sarin, VP Engineering @ GameChanger
After-Hours (around 8:30-9pm) : hanging out at a bar / restaurant nearby
Talk 1: Deadlines vs. Sad-lines: Using Cost of Delay to Understand Your Customer's Real Priorities
Abstract:
Often, customers and product owners speak about prioritization with the language of proxy variables: MoSCoW, L/M/H weighed against Fibonacci Story Points, I need it byFridayor Heads will Roll, etc. This creates a vicious circle, where customers manufacture deadlines to create a false sense of urgency, and engineers inflate estimates to give themselves safety buffers. Eventually, deadlines stop being taken seriously, trust evaporates, and the deadlines that truly matter dont happen.
Cost of Delay provides a straightforward framework to skip past the proxy variables and get Product and Engineering on the same page about what truly matters to an organization. In this talk, Ill explain how to calculate Cost of Delay, how Thumbtack has started to use it to prioritize work, and how you can even use it to get good results from Product Owners who dont have visibility into their P&L.
Bio:
With over a decade of experience building effective engineering teams,Jonathanchannels his expertise in Agile and Lean product development to educate and lead 100+ engineers at Thumbtack Technology, where he is currently EVP of Operations.
Before joining Thumbtack in May 2012,Jonathanled the CheetahMail development team for Experian. He co-chaired the Experian Global Agile Development Group, where he fine-tuned his Agile approach and began to incorporate Kanban into a unified development process.
Jonathanalso hosts the monthly NYC Lean/Kanban Meetup.
Talk #2- TBD.
Phil Sarin is the VP of Engineering atGameChangerafter a decade-long west coast tour that included stints at Amazon.com and Vontu (acquired by Symantec). He gets excited about all aspects of making stuff that people love. Find him on Twitter at@philsarinor check out his blog at216ways.net.
Here is a fun post about Phils Responsibilities.
And hang out afterwards at a bar nearby.
We like to hang out at Rye, which is at 11 W 17th St, New York, NY 10011, between Avenue of Americas and 5th. They have both drinks and food. http://ryehousenyc.com/
BTW, here are some of Reinertson's Videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyEtKpqqx_s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc1MqHsiiKo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr9I1LRhI_E
