How do we collaborate with stakeholders and why is it necessary for software development?

1. Collaborating
with
Stakeholders
Tuesday, November 1, 11

2. • Stuart Turner
• Originally from England
• Lives in Singapore
• Works for Odd-e
• Agile coach, SW developer
• Experience with startups and
Financial Institutions
• Java, Low-latency Trading
Systems, Operational Risk
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3. Why not just consider the
Customer?
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4. What is a stakeholder?
A person, group, organization or system
which affects or can be affected by an
organization's actions
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5. Why do we need
Collaboration?
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6. • Most modern software is complex
• Numerous and varied skill sets are required
• A team is the basic unit necessary
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7. But we’re agile!
• Yes, it helps to remove BDUF
• Yes, it brings people to work as teams
• Focuses on building things better, not
necessarily building the right things
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8. “There is nothing so useless
as doing efficiently that which
should not be done at all.”
Peter Drucker
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9. 64 %
of software
features are rarely
or never used!
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10. Why do we build things
we don’t really need?
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11. Confirmation Bias
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12. Tuesday, November 1, 11

13. • PO, customer, users just want what
someone else has
• Ticks more boxes
• Might be a language, framework, library or
design patterns
• New buzz words
• The latest ‘cool’ technology
• Your manager’s pet project
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14. Implementation team(s)
are too far removed
• Large organization
• Departmentalized specialization
• Local optimization
• ‘Broken telephone’
• Jerry Maguire
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15. Language
• Ambiguous
• Insufficient or incapable
• Lengthy
• Unsuitable
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16. User Stories
• User story for a user
• User story for a product owner
• User story for a developer
• No business value or benefit to the
customer
• No acceptance criteria
Krystian Kaczor
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17. We introduce
complications
• We want to use a tool
• We are able to work remotely
• Just because we can doesn’t mean we
should
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18. It’s not technology...
• Software is complex but not complicated
• The technical problems have almost
certainly been solved before
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19. • Most problems are caused by...
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20. Miscommunication
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21. Tuesday, November 1, 11

22. Tuesday, November 1, 11

23. The unknown is
unknown
• Each individual has their own view
• We don’t know if our views are the same
• If often appears our views are the same
• Customers sometimes don’t know what
they want
• They often don’t know what’s possible
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24. Solutions are often
conceived before we’ve
understood the
problem!
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25. Established Application
• Developed over the past ten years by an
average of 100 developers
• How do you tell if features are no longer
useful?
• Should you REMOVE some or all of those
features?
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26. Collaboration helps to
expand our knowledge and
understanding
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27. How do we collaborate
more effectively?
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28. Tuesday, November 1, 11

29. • Go and see
• More direct feedback
• Simple interaction
• Knowing what your work means to the
customer
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30. It’s complex
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31. Collaboration
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32. Collaboration
• Bring together all stakeholders
• Share the vision and goal
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33. Shared Mental Models
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34. Establish a shared
understanding of the
problem
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35. The problem isn’t the
problem!
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36. Overcoming the
problem is the
problem!
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37. With direct feedback
from all stakeholders
you realize you’re not
delivering a product or
a service
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38. You’re providing an
Experience
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39. Experiences
• Usage of delivered software
• Engagement and interaction
• Empathy and understanding
• Enthusiasm
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40. “We act as though comfort
and luxury were the chief
requirements of life.
All that we need to make
us happy is something to
be enthusiastic about.”
Albert Einstein
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41. You’re able to delight
your stakeholders
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42. Tuesday, November 1, 11

43. How do we
achieve this?
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44. Large brained animals
perform better when
they’re enjoying themselves
Nancy Frishberg
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45. Tuesday, November 1, 11

46. Bring people together
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47. Tuesday, November 1, 11

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49. Tuesday, November 1, 11

50. Overcoming the
problem
• Games and role playing really help
• Use physical and interactive media
• Act out different scenarios
• Prototype solutions
• Gauge stakeholder feedback
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51. Capture the
important details
• Use drawings and physical models
• Stakeholder value and acceptance criteria
• Automated acceptance tests
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52. I’m always doing things I
can’t do.
That’s how I get to do
them. Pablo Picasso
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53. Future Experiences
• How are you going to delight your
stakeholders?
• How are you going to improve your own
working experience?
• One small thing...
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