At Webcollage, we have been delivering a software-as-a-service web-based solution used by hundreds of the world’s leading brands (Microsoft, P&G, Sony, Pfizer). We have been using an agile development methodology, with new software releases pushed to customers every two weeks, yielding a very high customer satisfaction rates. The talk will present the anatomy of our agile lifecycle, including: - How and when does planning occur? How does the roadmap get communicated externally? - When and how does the content of each iteration get decided? How do features get estimated? - How do new features flow in and out of the system? How are large features broken down and handled? - How do features flow within the system (elaboration, development, testing, release)? - How are urgent requests and tickets handled? - Communication and visual monitoring tools - Regular meeting cadence

1. 1
Agile Israel 2013
Anatomy of an Agile Product
Lifecycle
Jan. 30, 2013
Eilon Reshef / VP Products and R&D / Co-Founder

2. 2
Business Background

3. 3
Our Business
• Operates the world’s largest
repository for rich product
information
• Manufacturers publish product
information
• Retailers subscribe to product
information and display it to
shoppers on their sites
• Rich product information
increases sales, in most cases
over 10%
The Company
• Delivering content for over
1,000 manufacturers, large and
small
• Content accessed ~1B times
annually
About Webcollage

4. 4
• Publish product and
brand information using
the Webcollage platform
• Many of the world’s
leading brands
• From Blue Chip
companies to medium
and small businesses
• North America and
Europe
Customers: Manufacturers

5. 5
• Subscribe to product
information from the
Webcollage platform and
presents it to shoppers
• Hundreds of subscribed
retailers
• Retailer network
continuously growing
• Multiple options to integrate
with Webcollage – makes
participation simple
• The vast majority of the
leading retailers in the US
and Western Europe are
subscribed
Retailers: Content Subscribers

6. 6
Managing Content in the Channel is a Challenge
• Each retailer has a unique process for acquiring and implementing content
• Synchronizing product launches across online retail is a nightmare
• Updates are close to impossible
• Retailer resources are overwhelmed
Channel
Web Team
Channel IT
Channel Sales
Manager
MFG IT
Brand
Manager
Corporate
Communications
Channel
Merchandising
Manager
Agency
Email
Email
Email
Email
Email
CD
CD
CD
Phone
Phone
Phone
Phone
FTP
FTP
FTP
Videos
Flash
Documents Interactive
Tour
Images
Web Pages/
Copy
Manufacturer Retailers

7. 7
Webcollage Solution at a Glance
Webcollage lets manufacturers manage their product and marketing
information and publish it in real-time across retailers and other
companies who sell their products
Webcollage
Videos
Flash
Documents Interactive
Tour
Images
Web Pages/
Copy
Manufacturer Retailers
Content
Publishing
Retailer
Network
w/Automation
Content
Presentation
Reporting
Engine

8. 8
The Agile Lifecycle

9. 9
Ancient History: Old Style Product Lifecycle
Launch
Beta, Release, PR
Develop
Design, Develop, QA
Plan
Negotiate, Prioritize, Schedule
Long cycles:
1 year
2 years
3 years
. . .

10. 10
Long Term Product Planning at Webcollage
• We meet annually to decide on high level priorities for
the year
• Involves budget, hiring, sales planning, business development, …
• We create a “straw man” framework
• What we think will more or less happen on a quarterly basis
• We keep tons of slack
• Slack grows as the year proceeds
• Our crystal ball distorts from far away

11. 11
• We have high-level roadmap
presentations that show what
we’re planning for the year
• We are not committing that
particular features will actually
be developed
• We are not committing to
particular timelines
• We are doing a lot to make our
customers happy, and they
know it
• When we have to give hard
commitments, we do it but it
rarely happens
• Part of the corporate culture
Communicating the Roadmap / Plan
1
2
3
5
4

12. 12
Short-Term Planning
• We meet each quarter to review priorities and new
learnings
• We recreate straw man plans for the upcoming quarter
• We keep slack at ~50%
• Quarterly plans are generally kept internal
• Not shared with customers
• Day to day planning happens in a relatively standard
fashion
• Wish List, Backlog, “In Play” (sprint equivalent)

13. 13
Tactical Execution: Iterations
• Two Week Development Cycles
• One-week pre-release period
• Two source control “streams” one for “QA” and one for “Dev”
• Another one for “Prod”
2013.10 2013.11
Development
Testing

14. 14
Tactical Execution: Anatomy (small fonts ;-)
2013.08 2013.09 2013.10
Sun 7 Installation
Mon 8 Weekly Meeting (~45 minutes)
Tue 9
Wed 10
Communication Meeting (What’s
Out)
Thu 11 Done Development (source control)
Fri 12
- - -
Sat 13
Sun 14 Planning
Mon 15 Weekly Meeting (~45 minutes)
Tue 16 Pre-release coordination meeting
Wed 17
Release
Communication Meeting (What’s
Coming)
Thu 18 Release E-Mail
Fri 19
- - -
Sat 20
Sun 21 Installation
Mon 22 Weekly Meeting (~45 minutes)
Tue 23
Wed 24 Communication Meeting (What’s Out)

15. 15
Tactical Execution: Iteration Scope
• We avoid “Closed Iterations” (Committed Content) [Scrum]
• We use “Open Iterations” (Flexible Content) [Kanban]
Feedback Feedback Feedback
Feedback Feedback Feedback

16. 16

17. 17
Feature Source: Wish List and Backlog

18. 18
Feature Source: Tickets

19. 19
Preparation
• No story cards
• Level of elaboration varies by depth
• GUI: Power Point with pages and GUI design
• “Deep” Features: Short Document (1-2 Pages)
• “Shallow” Features: Note within case system
• Managing the documents in a cloud document system
• “Box”
• Trying to put in place a “specification by example” session
• Assignment is usually early in the process

20. 20

21. 21
Communication beyond Development
• We hold broad weekly meetings
• Products, R&D, Professional Services, Pre-Sales, Product Marketing,
Operations, Technical Services, Technical Support
• Not sales
• Up to one hour
• Discussion
• Noteworthy features in last iteration
• Noteworthy features in upcoming iteration
• Tasks
• Create decks, communicate further
• Bi-weekly “what’s new” e-mail
• (We found out that information doesn’t bubble well enough)

22. 22
What’s Coming Dashboard (Pre-Launch)

23. 23
Last Version Dashboard

24. 24
Rollout Approach: Gradual Rollout
• Very rarely can large features be ready 360° out of the gate
• Training
• Online demos
• Key Approach: Feature Flag
• Turns Feature on or off
• Globally (configuration)
• For individual customers
• Common Scenario
• Feature flag off: internal users only on
• Feature flag off by default: select customers on
• “Alpha”/“Beta”
• “Canary Installation”
• Feature flag on by default: off for select customers
• Data migration
• “Release Candidate”
• On for all
• Applicable to large features, not to bug fixes

25. 25
Thank You