SPEAKER
Optional Conference: Agile management, not just for managers
Szabolcs Dobra
Szabolcs Dobra has been working on Telecom Platform and various Telecom Application development projects for Ericsson over the past 8-9 years mainly as project manager. In the last few years he is actively participating in the transformation from traditional to Agile project management. After these years he has a clearer understanding of the obstacles and also the enablers that supports the organization in the change. He is working currently as a Chief Product Owner.
Winning a tender with Story Mapping
Is it possible to challenge the ad-hoc estimation?
Would it help if you would have clear scope before you promise something to your customer?
During an ongoing tender for the American Telecom Region it has been identified that our product is lacking a key functionality. Without this functionality it seemed impossible to win the tender. Therefore we needed to quickly come up with an idea how to fill this gap. We had only two days to present a plan to stay in business.
After spending a few hours with a cross functional team and the technical experts gathering the scope collaboratively we managed to put a Minimum Marketable Feature proposal on the table. Within an hour we had a clear business strategy agreed with our Product Manager based on this input that put us back on track in the tendering.
Story Mapping is a powerful collaborative scope definition technique. It clearly visualizes the scope in priority order. Immediately tells the necessity and provides vision for future roadmap. Product Managers and Product Owners love it as they have great understanding of the scope and can easily see how to fit into tight deadline and budget. Estimation is improved, scope is clear, trust level increased.
Feedback on Story Mapping:
“It is crystal clear what is the scope and why.” – Roger, Strategic Product Manager (SPM)
“Very good tool to visualize the big picture and the increments of the feature.” – Máté, Component Area Responsible
“It’s a great tool for me because I can easily find good marketing slogans to sell for future roadmap.” – Roger, SPM