Sharing experiences for a successful agile project initiation from the trenches. You have the recipe, how about adding some salt & pepper in.

1. DO - IT - YOURSELF
Management
Stakeholder

2. George Stamos
Agile/Lean coach and trainer at Intracom Telecoms S.A
Scrum.org/User Profile
MsC in Electronics & Telecommunications Engineering graduate of
Bath University
.
Specialties: Lean, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, Training & Coaching
Scrum Teams, Mentoring Organization’s new Scrum Masters
g_stam77
george.m.stamos@gmail.com
http://www.slideshare.net/GeorgeStamos

3. Problem description
So far one of the most vital but problematic
areas within organizations seem to be
stakeholder management.
This action applies to all levels of the
organization with different abstraction

4. About this material

5. Objective
› To raise customer and stakeholder understanding
of your product owner community, teams and
organization
› Provide a tool in order to
– understand stakeholder’s expectations & needs
– collaborate in the most efficient way across the entire chain of the
product development flow stakeholders
– manage autonomously end-to-end operational responsibilities
› Help the building of working networks with all
stakeholders along your product flow

6. Management
Stakeholder

7. What do you need?

8. You need to
› Develop relationships and trust among stakeholders and
individuals that influence your products
› Manage relationships among your stakeholders
› Benefit from powerful stakeholders
› Ensure requirements are identified and aligned as early as
possible
› Mitigate risks and problems that delay your product
› Understand stakeholder tolerance in your risks
› Identify positive existing relationships
› Identify stakeholders and align with their expectations early
enough

9. Management
Stakeholder
What is

10. Stakeholder Management
› . . . is the process of interpreting and influencing
both the external and internal environments exist
in your product life cycle by creating positive
relationships with stakeholders through the
appropriate management of their expectations and
agreed objectives.
› Stakeholder management prepares a strategy
based on information gathered during
identification and the analysis phase of the
process, aiming to support the strategic objectives
of your organization and products.

11. • Product owner
• Scrum master
• Feature development teams
What we want!

12. Product owner
By definition, the primary goal of a product owner is to
represent the needs and desires of the stakeholder
community
› Help the stakeholders understand
• Product/feature requirements
• Product/feature plans
• Business and product/feature risks
› Listens to all stakeholders
› Report to internal & external product stakeholders
› Negotiate with internal & external product stakeholders
› Collaborate closely with all product stakeholders
› Understand stakeholder needs and expectations

13. Scrum master
› As a facilitator,
– to facilitate stakeholder management activities
– to help all roles and functions to collaborate closely
› As a coach,
– educate the Team and Product Owner
› to follow the process
› to remain engaged from the definition to the completion of the
feature
› to set the right expectations
› to provide ongoing feedback and support
› to allow all the transparency required and needed towards their
stakeholders

14. › As a shield,
– to educate others outside the feature about how organization is
working
– to manage stakeholder expectations
› As an impediment handler,
– to listen
– to remove fear & comfort
– to create and share big picture
– to challenge
Scrum master

15. Development team
› Know who feature stakeholders are
› Prioritize feature stakeholders right
› Keep stakeholders satisfied, actively engaged and
informed
› Monitor them and be aware if their expectations changed
› Communicate often using the right tools
› Be able to justify their decisions
› Engage feature stakeholders
› Be informed of feature’s risks
› Determine product team interaction points
› Define the objectives
› Set the frequency

16. The challenge

17. The challenge
›Unidentified stakeholders
–those who were not identified early in the project
›Unreasonable stakeholders
–those who do not embrace the feature as
required
›Unclear stakeholders
–those who do not clearly articulate
–those who are not open and honest about their
interests and expectations

18. › There’s misalignment
– Conflicting priorities
– Unshared vision
› There are politics
› You may be the messenger...
– At some point, you will need to give bad new
– You will need to say no
› And stakeholders changing over time
–At any given point, you may not know who they all are
–We need a systematic approach to identify and prioritize
The challenge

19. The process

20. YOUR TURN NOW

21. Identify
your
stakeholders

22. Identify
Product stakeholders
› The challenge: Identify all your product
stakeholders and draw your network.
› Duration: 30 minutes

23. Identify stakeholders Cheat sheet
Consider those who have . . .
The ability to impact your project
The ability to enhance your project (SMEs)
The ability to slow down your projects
The ability to remove impediments
The ability to lead opinions
The ability to facilitate the change
Remember those who have to live with
the solution
Customers and your organization itself
Production support (Maintenance)
Do not forget external influences
Subcontractors
Suppliers
Competitors
Regulatory agencies
Stakeholders may . . .
Find faults Delay approvals
Provide little support Be overly controlling
Reassign resources Pull the plug!
Start a competing
project
Sway opinions in a
negative direction
Stakeholders . . .
Can be business owners and others with
significant decision-making authority
Can be impacted by the project but have little
influence
May want more of your time than you can give
May not even be aware of your project... and may
not want another email in their inbox!

24. Analyze
your
stakeholders

25. 1. Define the context, and purpose of every stakeholder
identified
2. How is the above achieved
3. Determine who needs to be involved
4. What is your expectation from each stakeholder
5. What is your stakeholder expectation
6. Identify tangible & intangible deliverables needed from
both sides
7. Describe or draw the interaction or transaction you have
with each stakeholder
Duration : 1 hour
Analyze
Product stakeholders

26. Prioritize
your
stakeholders

27. The stakeholder map
Actively
Engage
Keep
Informed
Keep
Satisfied
Monitor
Low
High
High
Interest / Availability
Influence
What is it?
• Provides a framework
for managing
stakeholders based on
interest and influence
• Y-axis sometimes
labeled “Power”
• X-axis sometimes just
labeled “Interest”

28. Actively
Engage
Keep
Informed
Keep
Satisfied
Monitor
Low
High
High
Interest / Availability
Influence
• Business owners and
others with significant
decision-making
authority
• Typically easy to
identify
• Can kill, sustain, or
nurture the project
• They’re typically easy
to actively engage.
Set up consistent
touch points
The stakeholder map

29. Actively
Engage
Keep
Informed
Keep
Satisfied
Monitor
Low
High
High
Interest / Availability
Influence
• Those with
significantly decision-
making authority
• Lacks the availability
or interest to be
actively engaged
• It is usually difficult to
have consistent touch
points. Do whatever is
needed to keep them
satisfied.
The stakeholder map

30. Actively
Engage
Keep
Informed
Keep
Satisfied
Monitor
Low
High
High
Interest / Availability
Influence
• May be impacted by
the project but have
little influence
• May want more of your
time than you can give
• Find efficient ways to
communicate and
keep them informed
• Email updates
• Presentations
• Publicity
campaigns
The stakeholder map

31. Actively
Engage
Keep
Informed
Keep
Satisfied
Monitor
Low
High
High
Interest / Availability
Influence
• They aren’t (and don’t
expect to be)
significantly involved
• They may not even be
aware of your project...
and may not want
another email in their
inbox!
• Know who they are
• Monitor them and be
aware if they move into
other quadrants
The stakeholder map

32. Map (exercise)
Monitor
Keep
Satisfied
Keep
InformedInterest / Availability
Influence
Actively
Engage
Business Owner
Major stakeholder
Minor stakeholder
Subject Matter Expert

33. Prioritize stakeholders Cheat sheet
Actively Engage
• Business owners and others with significant
decision-making authority
• Typically easy to identify
• Can kill, sustain, or nurture the project
• They’re typically easy to actively engage.
• Set up consistent touch points
Keep Satisfied
• Those with significantly decision-making
authority
• Lacks the availability or interest to be
actively engaged
• Do whatever is needed to keep them
satisfied.
Keep informed
• May be impacted by the project but have
little influence
• May want more of your time than you can give
• Find efficient ways to communicate
Monitor
• They aren’t (and don’t expect to be)
significantly involved
• They may not even be aware of your project...
and may not want another email in their inbox!
• Know who they are
• Monitor them and be aware if they move into
other quadrants
What is it?
A framework for managing stakeholders based on
interest and influence
• Y-axis sometimes labeled “Power”
• X-axis sometimes just labeled “Interest”
Stakeholder map

34. Engaging
your
stakeholders

35. Engaging Stakeholders
1. Following the analysis made before
– Determine your touch points
– Define the expected objectives and outputs
– Set the frequency
2. In case of a stakeholder alignment need
– Build your alignment agenda
– Questions you have
1. Use Engaging stakeholders (cheat sheet) to evaluate/improve your
product stakeholder touch points
2. Use Stakeholder interview (cheat sheet) in order to prepare your self
for this alignment by doing the right questions too
Notes

36. Engaging stakeholders Cheat sheet
Think fist
• Do my stakeholders prefer formal or informal
communication?
• What is the reporting needs of each
stakeholder?
• How does reporting generally occur in my
organization? What do reports look like in my
organization
• What are the pattern of interactions used?
• What is missing?
Impact Analysis basic questions
• How well are we converting our inputs into
value?
• How do stakeholder inputs help us build our
capabilities?
Cost/Risk handling
• What are the product handling costs or
demands arising from stakeholders requests
and expectations
• What is the product risks when stakeholders
requests/expectations handled or not handled
well?
Value creation (benefit/gain)
• Is there a gain, increase, or positive impact on
our feature in terms of improving quality,
processes, feature timing or cost reduction?
• Does it build strategic capability for the
product by increasing knowledge or
competence, enabling collaboration or learning,
improving ways of working?
• How well are we using our assets?
Ask your self
• What are your product biggest challenges?
• What does success look like?
• What would happen if you don't change the
way things are done today?

37. Stakeholder alignment Cheat sheet
Consider and Share
• Your product Vision, Goals and Time Plan
• Your development teams structure and location
• What are your development processes and who
owns them?
• What is your expectations?
• Describe your role and responsibilities.
• What areas for improvement have you
observed?
Ice breakers
• What are your organization biggest challenge?
• What does success look like?
• What are the biggest challenges in your role?
Moving into the details
• How would you describe the process?
• What parts of the process would you improve
and why?
• What ideas do you and your teammates talk
about as ways to improve the process?
• What would happen if we don't change the
way things are done today?
Question that can be addressed
• In your opinion what are the product risks?
What are the chances of success vs. failure?
Why?
• How do you measure success in your
organization?
• How often would you prefer to interact?
• What information do you use in your job?
What forms do you use?
• Where are your organization's locations?
• What is your management organization
structure?

38. Managing
Expectations

39. Managing expectations

40. What is needed
›Patience
›Setting the right expectation
–on scope
–and timing
›Prioritize right
›Allocate feature resources and budget right
›Be able to justify your decisions
›Continuous planning and risk assessment

41. Be prepared for
›Questions from those not familiar with your
practices
–“What do you mean you can’t commit to what
I’m getting six months from now?”
–“Can you squeeze it in? It’s really small.”
–“Why are you wasting time on architecture and
refactoring?”

42. Consider
• How
• When
• Objectives
• Resources
Communicate often

43. How?
› Audio/Visual
– Video conferencing
– Teleconferencing
› Face to Face
– Project meetings
– Workshops/Presentations
– Briefings
– Ad-hoc meetings for individuals with specific questions
› Online
– Email
– Forums
– Intranet, wikis
› Printed material

44. When?
›Proactive communication (preferably)
›Reactive communication

45. What objectives?
› Provide reporting material
› Review planning
› Review budget
› Information sharing
› Decision making
› To remain engaged
› Provide feedback and support
› Define and clarify requirements
› Collaborate
› Establish a trusting Agile environment

46. Which resources?
›Define spokes-people
–Good to speak with one voice
–Good to know the audience

47. Way forward

48. Proposals
› Gather all stakeholder intelligence in one place
› After product completion forward or present your
feedback and experiences to your organization
and development community
› Share your good practices