Exam II Flashcards
(115 cards)
1
Q
What is Risk?
A
It is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or more product / project objectives.
2
Q
Define Issue
A
It is an event or situation that has happened and has a negative effect on one or more project objectives. Therefore, specific actions or work-arounds are needed to address the issue and ensure that the project stays on track.
3
Q
Risk = Threat * Vulnerability … what does this mean? How this might it work?
A
It is potential for loss, damage, or destruction of an asset as a result of a threat exploiting a vulnerability. We conduct a Risk Assessment which then goes to determine the Actions to Reduce Risk. Then we revise to determine which risks have the most impact before making the changes to reduce risk.
4
Q
What is Negative Risk?
A
Are risks that negatively impact the project which we try to reduce or eliminate.
5
Q
What is Positive Risk?
A
Is any condition, event, occurrence, or situation that provides a possible positive impact for a project or enterprise that we exploit to maximize project outcomes.
6
Q
What is the difference between Positive and Negative Risk
A
Positive risks is where we try to exploit to maximize project outcomes while Negative risks are risks that are potentially threat to the project which we try to reduce or eliminate.
7
Q
Common Types of Software Risk: Give a (brief) description of each type and other sources of risk
A
‒ Lack of top-management commitment to the project
‒ Failure to gain user commitment
‒ Misunderstanding the requirements
‒ Lack of adequate user involvement
‒ Failure to manage end-user expectations
‒ Changing scope/objectives (… related to misunderstanding the requirements)
‒ Lack of required knowledge/skills in the project personnel
‒ Lack of frozen requirements (i.e., scope creep or feature creep)
‒ Introduction of new technology (that may not yet be well understood)
‒ Insufficient / inappropriate technology
‒ Conflict between departments (e.g., users & developers)
8
Q
New Technology and its impact on risk and effects on project risk and corporate risk?
A
New technology can increase risk
New Technologies + (Inadequate) Resource Base -> Increased Project Risk
-> Increased Corporate Risk
For example …
− Developing new business ideas
− Starbucks crowd-sourced: MyStarbucksIdea
− May need to build and manage various new technologies for which they do not currently have the skills or technology infrastructure
9
Q
The 7 Components of Project Risk Management
A
‒ Plan Risk Management ‒ Identify Risks ‒ Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis ‒ Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis ‒ Plan Risk Responses ‒ Implement Risk Responses ‒ Monitor Risks
10
Q
Space Shuttle Challenger: What happened and what went wrong?
A
The Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch killing all of its occupants. The cause of the disaster that two redundant O-ring seals in a joint in the Space Shuttle’s right solid rocket booster (SRB) failed in record-low temperatures of the launch reduced the elasticity of the rubber O-rings, reducing their ability to seal the joints. Investigation reveal organizational culture at NASA contributed to the accident as they knew for nine years before the disaster.
11
Q
Space Shuttle Columbia, What happened and what went wrong?
A
The shuttle disintegrated during reentry less than 10 minutes from landing in Florida killing all of its occupants. NASA decision makers “failed to recognize the relevance of engineering concerns for safety as a piece of the insulative foam broke off from the Space Shuttle external tank and struck the thermal protection system tiles on the orbiter’s left wing causing the shuttle to disintegrate returning to Earth.
12
Q
International Space Station, what happened and what went wrong?
A
Ever since being launched to deal with several maintenance issues, unexpected problems and failures. These incidents have affected the assembly timeline, led to periods of reduced capabilities of the station and in some cases could have forced the crew to abandon the space station for safety reasons, had these problems not been resolved. The biggest problem are Micrometer strikes and debris up to 1 cm could cause critical damage while anything larger than 10 cm could “shatter a satellite or spacecraft into pieces.
13
Q
What is the Cone of Uncertainty? What does it represent and How does it work?
A
It is a progressively more detailed and accurate projection of the project schedule and duration as the project manager or project team specifies project deliverables and activities in more detail. At the beginning of a project, comparatively little is known about the product or work results, and so estimates are subject to large uncertainty. As more research and development is done, more information is learned about the project, and the uncertainty then tends to decrease, reaching 0% when all residual risk has been terminated or transferred. This usually happens by the end of the project i.e. by transferring the responsibilities to a separate maintenance group. It goes from feasibility, concept operation, requirements specifications, product design, detail specifications, and accepted software
14
Q
What is Risk Assessment? Why is risk so difficult to determine/assess?
A
It is document that identifies potential risks, an evaluation of the likelihood of the risk event occurring, and its impact on the project. Risk is an important activity that is often not done particularly well! It is difficult, often complex, and subtle.
15
Q
Managing Risk – features/phases/tasks? What’s done in each phase?
A
Same ideas in Plan Risk Management ‒ Identify Risks ‒ Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis ‒ Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis ‒ Plan Risk Responses ‒ Implement Risk Responses ‒ Monitor Risks
16
Q
Risk Management Process – steps/phases? What’s done in each phase?
A
- Plan Risk Management ‒ Identify Risks ‒ Perform Qualitative Risk Analysis ‒ Perform Quantitative Risk Analysis ‒ Plan Risk Responses ‒ Implement Risk Responses ‒ Monitor Risks
17
Q
Monitor Risks – Why? How? By doing what …?
A
Consistent w/ the process of project management control, identified risks must be monitored for change and must be controlled. ‒ Implement Risk Responses ‒ Perform … • Periodic Project Risk Reviews • Project Risk Response Audits • Technical Performance Analysis • Metrics … plan and collect data • And look for risks that exist that were not specifically identified
18
Q
Reducing Risk
A
Reducing the risk could be publicized (i.e., make sure everyone is aware of potential risks), avoided, or even eliminated by dealing w/ root cause(s).
19
Q
Revised Risk
A
Is where the best managers often prioritize risks according to magnitude and importance
20
Q
Risk Response Strategies
A
Six different strategies: Risk escalation, avoidance, exploitation, transference, mitigation, and acceptance
21
Q
What is risk escalation?
A
Is moving the response to a higher level in the organization
22
Q
What is avoidance?
A
Actively seek to avoid identified threats to the project, eliminate the risk, or not become involved.
23
Q
What is exploitation?
A
It is take advantage of opportunities for positive outcomes.
24
Q
What is transference?
A
Also known as Risk Sharing, it is the transfer the risk to another party, often through contracts or insurance.
25
What is mitigation?
It is actively work to reduce, eliminate, or transfer the chances of risk occurring or reduce the impact on project objectives.
26
What is acceptance?
It is determining an effective response is to just accept the risk(s), budget for risk, and develop contingency strategies on how to respond.
27
Therac 25 Radition Therapy Machine – What happened? Why?
It was a Radiation Therapy Treatment Machine designed by the Atomic Energy Canada Limited – AECL that was plagued with generally poor software design and development practices … further, the design made it impossible to test it in a clean, automated way. There were several Institutional contributing factors most notably reusing older software which caused several engineering issues causing several failures in the process. In response to incidents like those associated with Therac-25, the IEC 62304 standard was created, which introduces development life-cycle standards for medical device software and specific guidance on using software of unknown pedigree.
28
Inherent Risk
It is the Impact * Likelihood of the Event
29
Residual Risk
It is the amount of risk remaining after controls have been applied
30
Secondary Risk
Are risks resulting from the application of the risk response strategy.
31
What is Risk Register and how can it be used?
It is a formal record listing all project risks, explaining the nature of the risk, and the management of the risk. It lists all of the risks associated with a project and explains the likelihood and impact from these risks, and what actions are needed to reduce or eliminate these risks.
32
Risk Appetite
It is amount of risk you are (or the organization is) willing to take in order to achieve the intended operational performance and meet strategic growth opportunities.
33
NIST Risk Framework – What is it? Why was it developed and used? Steps (list and brief description)
Is a function of the likelihood of a given threat-source’s exercising of a particular potential vulnerability, and the resulting impact of that adverse event on the organization. NIST was selected for the task of developing the Framework because they are a non-regulatory federal agency that acts as an unbiased source of scientific data and practices, including cybersecurity practices. NIST’s mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST has a long history of successfully addressing critical national issues through partnerships with industry, academia, and other government agencies. This kind of collaboration would be critical for the Framework to be successful.
* Step 1 – System Characterization
* Step 2 – Threat Identification
* Step 3 – Vulnerability Identification
* Step 4 – Control Analysis
* Step 5 – Likelihood Determination
* Step 6 – Impact Analysis
* Step 7 – Risk Determination
* Step 8 – Control Recommendations
* Step 9 – Results Documentation
34
Quotes from Eisenhower, von Moltke, & Mike Tyson on planning (i.e., essentially planning for risk)
- In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. —Dwight D. Eisenhower
- No battle plan survives first contact with the enemy. —Helmuth Karl Bernhard Graf von Moltke
- Everybody has a plan ‘til they get punched in the mouth.— Mike Tyson
35
Risk Grid Template – What is it? What are the primary components? How can it be used?
It is a chart that plots the severity of an event occurring on one axis, and the probability of it occurring on the other. You can also format the matrix as a table, where the risk likelihood and impact are columns, and the risks are listed in rows. The impact and likelihood increase as you continue.
36
Bias – types & how different types of bias can affect risk assessment(s) – 6 types identified
‒ Anchoring Bias is the tendency to use even unrelated information as input into a judgment or decision.
‒ Availability Heuristic is the tendency to rely on examples of information that come to mind most easily.
‒ Confirmation Bias is the tendency to seek confirming evidence while discounting disconfirming evidence.
‒ False Consequences Effect is the tendency to overestimate others’ agreement
‒ Functional Fixedness – inability to see or realize other creative uses of an object (or skills of a person)
‒ Optimism Bias – tendency to believe that we are more successful than our peers
37
Carter Racing Scenario and what we learned from the exercise
Where we figure out whatever the engine can race in cold or warm temperature due to the unique turbocharger system. However, two people died and the team was sued for wrongful death
38
Common Risk Parameters
‒ Detectability is an error (or deviation from normal performance) able to be detected?
‒ Manageability can we manage ‘issues’ if we detect deviation from the norm?
‒ Controllability can we ‘control’ the situation?
‒ Urgency how quickly must this be resolved?
‒ Proximity how close (or far) is this from other ‘systems’ that can be affected?
‒ Dormancy how active (or inactive)?
‒ Connectivity how connected is this to other ‘systems’ where it may have an effect?
‒ Strategic Impact positive/negative impact on strategic goals
‒ Propinquity how close a kinship or proximity is there?
39
Features of Effective Risk Management
‒ Look for Root Causes (i.e., you often need to look beyond the immediate and/or obvious cause)
‒ Remove subjectivity (from risk assessment and risk responses)
‒ Link risks to controls
‒ Link risks to strategic goals
‒ Make risk a part of everyone’s job responsibility every day software development))
40
Qualitative Risk Assessment or Risk Analysis
‒ Expert Judgment
‒ Interviews
‒ Observation
‒ Assumption Testing
‒ Scoping – examining Inputs &/or Outputs
‒ Threat Profiling – identify and profile any relevant threats &/or actors
‒ Controls Assessment
• Control(s) implemented / Control Owner / Control Framework
‒ Risk Evaluation
• Residual Risk / Risk Appetite / Risk Registry
‒ Risk Treatment(s)
41
Tornado Analysis
It is an example of one type of sensitivity analysis … graphical representation showing which risks can cause the greatest variability in some outcome(s). Risks at the top have the largest variability; risks at the bottom cause the least variability in outcomes.
42
Project Execution
Is the process of carrying out the project plan to accomplish the required work.
43
Total Cost for Risk (Estimates) – Potential Risk + Mitigation Cost
- Total Cost is the sum of the Mitigation Cost + value of Potential Loses
- Potential Losses + Mitigation Cost = Total Cost [Not to scale]
Look at slides graph
44
Boeing Starliner (Crew Space Transportation) System – some general design details … what went wrong?
During the first attempt, in December 2019, Starliner suffered a number of software glitches and got stranded in the wrong orbit for a meetup with the orbiting lab. The Starliner has a years-long history of software problems, hardware issues, and other delay-causing problems including Boeing totally skipping a crucial safety test in February 2021 including issues where the astronauts could have got serious injuries or killed.
45
Error discovery rates for software for different testing stages… where do the error discovery rates tend to be highest? Lowest? Most expensive to fix or address? Least expensive?
Discover the problem earlier helps to get the project ready for integration time and is the least expensive to address. The discovery rate for errors are discovered later, it can delay the integration time and can be very expensive as the project can be delayed and the team behind the project have to fix a lot of problems and might have outsource adding more to the cost.
46
Effects of Familiarity w/ the technology, project size, and the structure or definition of requirements on project risk?
High Familiarity w/Technology or Application Area:
- Low Structure
- Small Project: Very Low Risk (of project failure), (Very susceptible to mismanagement)
- Large Project: Low Risk (of project failure), (Very susceptible to mismanagement)
- High Structure
- Small Project: Very Low Risk (of project failure)
- Large Project: Low Risk (of project failure)
Low Familiarity w/Technology or Application Area
- Low Structure
- Small Project: High Risk (of project failure)
- Large Project: Very High Risk (of project failure)
- High Structure
- Small Project: Medium-to-Low Risk (of project failure)
- Large Project: Medium Risk (of project failure)
47
Project Closure – What is it? Why/How is it important?
It is or should be, important to clients, stakeholders, team members, project managers, as well as organizational management (also known as “close-out,” “commissioning,” “launch”,“implementation,” etc.). It ensures the project has been approved and accepted by the customer. What we learned from the project, evaluating the performance and management of the project and handing the project over to the client.
48
What is Project Audit and goals?
A systematic and formal inquiry into a project’s schedule, expenditures, and quality of work …
‒ Audits – use performance measures and forecast data (i.e., measures of success), plus
• Independent, outside view of the project
• Why was the project selected?
• Reassessment of the project’s role in organization priorities
• Check on the org culture the project facilitates (for software for internal use)
• Team functioning well and appropriately staffed?
• Effects of external factors – technology, government laws, competitive products, etc.
49
What is In-process audit and goals?
It allows for corrective changes if conditions have changed or performance is different than expected
50
What is post-project audit and needs and goals?
Often include more detail than in-process audits … long-term orientation … has project delivered the expected strategic benefits?
51
Guidelines for conducting an audit?
1. Project Audit is NOT a witch hunt
2. Keep comments focused on project issues … not what happened or what was done by whom
3. Be intensely sensitive to human emotions and reactions… it can be an inherent threat to those being evaluated should be reduced as much as possible
4. Accuracy of the data should be verifiable or noted as subjective, judgmental, or hearsay
5. Senior management should visibly support the project audit and see that the audit group has access to all information, project participants, and (in most cases) project customers
6. Objective is to learn and conserve valuable org resources where mistakes have been made (i.e., NOT to prosecute) …
7. Be completed as quickly as is reasonable
52
Wrap-Up and Closure Checklist
Team
1. Has a schedule for reducing project staff been developed and accepted?
2. Has staff been released or notified of new assignments?
3. Have performance reviews for team members been conducted?
4. Has staff been offered outplacement services and career counseling activities?
Vendors / Contractors
5. Have performance reviews for all vendors been conducted?
6. Have project accounts been finalized and all billing closed?
Customers / Users
7. Has the customer signed-off on the delivered product?
8. Has an in-depth project review and evaluation interview with the customer been conducted?
9. Have the users been interviewed to assess their satisfaction with the deliverables? With the project team? With training? With support? With maintenance?
Equipment and Facilities
10. Have project resources been transferred to other projects?
11. Have rental or leased equipment agreements been closed out?
12. Has the date for the closure review been set and stakeholders notified?
53
Project System Review
‒ Examine the extent to which the costs and benefits of the project have been realized
− Beyond the initial Project Closure Review, thorough Project and follow-up Systems Reviews are rarely done, but would be beneficial if done more often, such as w/ a 6-month / 12-month / 24-month review and assessment process …
• Immediate cost-benefit analysis (~ 0 – 6 months)
• Intermediate-term cost-benefit analysis (~ 12 months)
• Long-term cost-benefit analysis (~ 24-36 months)
‒ Use this information to help in more accurately estimating costs and benefits for future projects
54
Types of Project Closure?
Five types
− Normal (aka natural termination) – handing off the final design as the results of the project are incorporated into on-going operations or to sales
− Premature – project may be completed early with some parts of the project eliminated … important to assess the implications and risks associated with a ‘complete’ project (but one that falls short of the original scope)
− Perpetual – some projects never seem to end … often due to constant “add-ons” (i.e., scope creep) … look for ways to bring official closure to the project
− Failed (aka unnatural termination) – many projects will fail because of circumstances beyond the project team’s control … every effort should be made to communicate the technical (and/or other reasons) for project termination
− Changed Priorities – strategies and priorities shift during a project … project oversight should be constantly monitoring project progress, and changes should be quickly and honestly communicated to the project team.
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Organizational Project Maturity Model (OPM3) – What is it? What is it for? Why is this, or might this be, important?
It is a recognized standard for “organizational project management”. It offers best practices for the interaction of portfolio management, program management and project management. OPM3 was developed by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and recognized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as an American National Standard.
56
What are the major stages/phases of maturity in Organizational Project Maturity Model (OPM3)?
Step 1: Initial—Processes unpredictable, poorly controlled, reactive, ad hoc
Step 2: Repeatable—More formalized, processes characterized for project, often reactive
Step 3: Defined—Processes characterized for the organization, proactive. Projects tailor their processes based on org standards; institutionalized
Step 4: Managed—Processes measured and controlled; strong project management
Step 5: Optimized—Focus on process improvement; optimization
The CMM is focused on culture change … Average time for Maturity-level change
Level 1 to 2 takes 22 months
Level 2 to 3 takes 19 months
Level 3 to 4 takes 25 months
Level 4 to 5 takes 13 months
57
How did Nokia succeed in its cell phone project(s), yet fail as a Product?
They used a competitive advantage through its highly valued products, services and innovations. It includes a pervasive bureaucracy leading to an inability to act, destructive internal competition and the failure to realize the importance of lifestyle products like the iPhone.
58
What is the root cause strategy?
The idea on what the root cause of the problem and at times is often misstated as some problems were focused on secondary problems that don’t cause the actual problem.
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Quantitative Risk Assessment or Risk Analysis
‒ Simulations
‒ Sensitivity Analysis
‒ Tornado Analysis
‒ Decision Tree Analysis
‒ Monetary Value Analysis
1. Assign Asset Value (AV)
2. Calculate Exposure Factor (EF)
3. Calculate Single-Loss Expectancy (SLE) SLE = AV * EF
4. Assess the Annualized Rate of Occurrence (ARO) ARO = # / years
5. Derive the Annualized Loss Expectancy (ALE) ALE = SLE * ARO
6. Perform Cost-Benefit Analysis of Counter Measures
- Annualized Cost of Safeguard (ACS) ACS = $ / years, (Pre-ALE – Post-ALE) – ACS = Value
60
What are the primary differences, if any, between a Waterfall approach and an Agile approach to project management and/or product management?
Project Management relates to Waterfall project methodology is a model in which every stage of a product’s life cycle takes place in sequence. The progress flows steadily downwards through these phases like a waterfall.
Product Management relates to Agile software development methodology is the model that proposes a sequential, linear and iterative approach.
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What are the differences in Project Management and Product Management?
Project Management also known as Waterfall development and delivery, it focuses on output, the success is measured by time/scope/budget, it has a fixed scope and deliverables, limited ability to adapt, fixed funding based on scope and a (generally) stagnant culture
```
Product Management:
•A focus on outcome
•Success measured by customer value
•Scope constantly evolves
•Facilitates adaptation
•Funding set for duration and capacity
•A learning culture
•Agile development & delivery
```
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How is the Agile approach different from a Waterfall (or Traditional) approach?
1. In Waterfall model software development, the process is divided into different phases. Agile proposes to segregate the development lifecycle into sprints.
2. In Waterfall, development process should be implemented as one single project. Then this project is divided into phases. Agile contains a set of different projects that are the iterations of the different stages. They are focused on improving the quality and feedbacks from users.
3. Waterfall software development model is structured and often rigid. Often project managers prefer Agile as a more flexible model.
4. According to the iterative Waterfall model in software engineering, all the project phases are completed at a time. In Agile they follow an iterative development approach. So some of the phases can appear more than once.
5. There is no chance to change the requirements once the Waterfall project development starts. Agile is more flexible and allows changes in the project development requirements. Even after the planning has been completed.
6. One more difference between Waterfall and Agile is their individual approach towards testing and quality. According to Agile, testing is usually performed concurrently with programming. In Waterfall, testing phase comes after the build phase.
7. Waterfall approach does not require the participation of customers, as it is an internal process. However, Agile methodology focuses on clients satisfaction and involves them to participate throughout the development phase.
8. Waterfall iterative model is good for projects with clearly defined requirements and without expected changes. Agile allows changing and evolving the requirements.
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Owlet Case Study (video)
1. What is the product being developed?
2. What were their starting assumptions?
3. What did they do as part of the development process?
4. What did they do?
5. What steps did they take?
6. What problems/issues/unexpected results did they encounter?
7. How did they respond?
8. What did they learn?
9. What surprised them?
10. Why was this important?
1. Wireless socket simulator
2. Put the technology into a ankle socket on the baby and send the information wirelessly to a relay station alerting the parents as well putting the information on a smartphone.
3. Use new technology until the hospitals told them it has to clinic approved technology.
4. They did extensive testing and figuring out the right size as the baby would grow within a year. Figure out the market risk which was easy and technology risk which is hard.
5. They got information from parents, they surveys, build the website, permit with FDA
6. They unexpectedly got problems with the FDA as they have to file a permit, misunderstanding what the price they would pay for their product.
7. They responded by filling a permit with the FDA and getting more information with how the product will be priced and getting the product market segmented.
8. The user is not always their customer, they did surveys which they changed how they would price their product, segment their customers.
9. When they proposed their product, they had an overwhelming positive response from their potential customers. They build a website and a video on the website that was leaked out before it was introduced, they need FDA compliance for their product.
10. The company was wanting to develop innovative health products but has run into troubles from not being approved by the FDA to recalling their products.
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What is the idea of “Product Discovery?” How does this fit within an Agile approach?
Is a process that helps product teams refine their ideas by deeply understanding real user problems and then landing on the best way to solve them. Product discovery focuses on the customer and how product teams will quickly and consistently produce better designed and high performing products. The human centred approach to product discovery leads to increased problem-solution fit hence higher customer value.
65
What are the main ‘pieces’ of Scrum? What is each for? Is there a sequence in which they are done? Why? Or, why not?
Sprint planning -> Daily scrum -> Backlog refinement -> Sprint review -> Sprint retrospective -> Customer ready product increment -> Incremental product release
It’s done in order
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What are the main roles (for people) in Scrum? What does each do? How are these roles different from the Traditional/Waterfall approach, or are they different?
- Scrum uses small teams to produce small pieces of deliverable software using sprints, or up to 30-day intervals (i.e., 4 weeks), to achieve an appointed goal … in fact, the sprints are often one week or two weeks in length, with a two-week length (probably) being the most common
- Under this methodology, (the typical approach is) each day begins or ends with a stand-up meeting of the entire team to share what’s been done, problems encountered, how they were addressed, and what is next … these help w/ coordination for monitoring and controlling the development effort
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What are other Agile or Agile-like approaches?
Scrum, DevOps, Swarm development (Single tasking), Mob programming, collocated teams and distributed teams
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What are the four variables that should be assessed to determine whether it is worthwhile to start or continue a Product Development process? What is the focus/emphasis for each one?
Valuable: Will customers buy it or users choose to use it?
Usable: Can customers/users figure out how to use it?
Feasible: Can this be built? Can we build it with the time, skills, and technology that we have?
Viable: Can this solution work for the purposes for which it has been built?
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How is a ‘Scrum Master’ different from a ‘Product Manager,’ or are they really the same thing?
Scrum Master
‒ Act as coaches for the team on Scrum practices
‒ Servant leader focused on removing impediments
‒ Tracks team progress
Project Manager
‒ Serves as the “Voice of the Product”
‒ Ensures product meets customer needs
‒ Full responsibility and ownership over product deliverable
‒ Intersection of business, technology, and user experience
‒ Looks long-term to assess market changes
‒ Adjusts scope as needed with Product Owner to prioritize key features
70
Explain the statement: “… all of the roles revolve around the delivery team to help them do their best work at their best pace …” In what type of approach is this description relevant/accurate (e.g., Waterfall, Agile, Scrum, XP, etc.)?
Waterfall depicts how the schedule for the project goes while agile gets the product developed.
71
Explain the purpose of a Product Canvas?
Is a planning tool designed to help build products that have a great user experience through a focus on feature development.
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What are the main components in a Product canvas and What is each component for?
- Vision: Why are you creating your product? In other words, what is the founding inspiration for your idea? This should typically be one relatively short statement or sentence … or use a template.
- Name of the product
- Goal is the reason creating the project
- Metrics is the measures to determine if the goal has been met.
- Target group is the user and the customers with their needs. Personas are a great way to describe the target group.
- Big picture is the desired user experience: the user journeys, the product functionality, the visual design, and the nonfunctional properties. Epics, scenarios, storyboards, workflows, design sketches, mock-ups, and constraint stories are helpful techniques.
- Product details is the goal of the next iteration with specific actionable items to reach the goal. The items are ordered from one to another and may be captured as detailed user stories.
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In the Product Canvas, what is the “Target Group?”
It is the user and the customers with their needs. Personas are a great way to describe the target group.
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Why have a Product Vision?
A Product Vision is a prerequisite for strategy … your Product Vision should not be a plan that shows you how to reach your goal … it should allow you to pivot as you learn and build while staying consistent with your vision … you don’t know exactly where you are going to be at the end of the product’s development … you will figure that out as you go, and you’’ adjust to new market conditions, to your customers, the environment may change … those things (and others) will cause you to adjust …
75
What is meant by the statement by the Cheshire Cat from the “Alice in Wonderland” excerpt: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there.”?
Is creating the vision for your product in any way to attract customers and is a prerequisite for strategy.
76
Briefly describe two ways to craft a Vision statement. What might be the benefits of each? Disadvantages/Limitations? Which do you think you would like to use, and why?
Fairy Tale Approach is a system of guiding the client to achieve specified outcomes in a set order
Generic Approach is purports that an individual-focused approach - emphasizing individuals' unique, diverse intrapsychic and interpersonal processes and needs - can always be initiated later on if necessary, based on a careful screening and referral process.
77
Within the larger Agile framework and the Scrum approach, in particular, where in the Scrum model (i.e., Sprint) are all of the tasks (that we've been doing in class through the various assignments) actually being done?
Much of the tasks we have discussed so far are in the daily planning.
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When did the Agile approach (more formally) come into existence? Is there a 'birthday?'
It came into existence in 2001 at Snowbird, Utah
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When did Agile become ‘Agile?’ Explain ... Was Agile in use prior to its birthday? Explain.
The agile system started when Iterative and incremental software development methods can be traced back as early as 1957. By the 1990s, several variations were in wide use, such as Rapid Application Development (RAD) [1991], the Rational Unified Process (RUP) [1994], Extreme Programming (XP) [1996], and Feature-Driven Development [1997]. Scrum, probably the best-known Agile approach, originated in 1995. These various approaches have come to collectively be known as “Agile Approaches they pre-date the Agile Manifesto by as much as a decade … Similar changes toward iterative and incremental (i.e., Agile) development were under manufacturing and aerospace. Agile became ‘Agile’ in 2001.
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Are there examples of Agile before Agile was officially created?
Rapid Application Development (RAD) [1991]
Rational Unified Process (RUP) [1994]
Extreme Programming (XP) [1996]
Feature-Driven Development [1997].
Scrum, probably the best-known Agile approach, originated in 1995.
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What is a Story Map? What is its purpose? What is its objective? What is the process? How is it built? How is one created? How is it used? How many layers are there (or should there be) in this tool/approach? Explain.
Is an approach to gain shared understanding of problem we are trying to solve. An approach to keep the objective (desired outcome) at the forefront.
1) List the actors (on the left)
2) Write the ending (on the right)
3) Words / Arrows in between
4) Keep it simple
5) Ask for help & feedback!
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A Story Board? What is its purpose? What is its objective? What is the process? How is it built? How is one created? How is it used? How many layers are there (or should there be) in this tool/approach? Explain.
Is a graphic organizer that provides the viewer with a high-level view of a project. In Agile software development, a storyboard can help developers quickly get a sense of what work still needs to be completed. As long as the team keeps the storyboard up to date, anyone can see what work has been completed, who's working on what and what work is left to do. This not only provides the product owner with transparency, it also helps the team to visualize the sequence and interconnectedness of user stories. Storyboards can be physical or digital.
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What is a Persona?
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Is a fictional group that can function as a description for the Target Group, with attributes, such as:
‒ Name
‒ Job Title
‒ Age, Ethnicity, etc.
‒ Goals and Tasks
‒ Behaviors
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What is A Feature?
Is a service or function of the product that delivers business value and fulfils the customer's need. Each feature is broken down into several user stories, as it is usually too big to be worked on directly.
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What is a User Story?
Is the smallest unit of work in an agile framework. It's an end goal, not a feature, expressed from the software user's perspective. A user story is an informal, general explanation of a software feature written from the perspective of the end user or customer.
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What is an Epic?
Is a body of work that can be broken down into specific tasks (called user stories) based on the needs/requests of customers or end-users. Epics are an important practice for agile and DevOps teams. When adopting agile and DevOps, an epic serves to manage tasks.
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What is a Prototype?
Is a early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process or to act as a thing to be replicated or learned from. Prototyping gives everyone on a team a single idea to work from and is a far more effective way to communicate a designer's intent than a group of static screenshots.
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How is a Persona used? Where do Personas come from, i.e., who makes/writes them?
Functions as a description for the Target Group, with attributes, such as:
‒ Name
‒ Job Title
‒ Age, Ethnicity, etc.
‒ Goals and Tasks
‒ Behaviors
Create Persona Profiles
‒ What fictional character(s) should be created to represent the target users?
‒ What are attributes of these?
Personas are synthesized from data collected from interviews with users. They are captured in 1–2-page descriptions that include behavioral patterns, goals, skills, attitudes, with a few fictional personal details to make the persona a realistic character.
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How/ Where are the interview questions used? For what purpose? Are these all that there are? Where do they come from? Can you think of any additional interview questions you might want to ask?
They are used to get information from people and they ask certain questions about certain events or topics. The purpose is to get consumers aware of your product and see what feedback they provide to determine if any changes are needed.
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What is MVP and its purpose?
MVP stands for Minimum Value Product and is to is the first version of a product that can be released to users
‒ Provides core functionality without any addition features
‒ A way to see how customers ‘feel’ about a product or idea
‒ Based on customer’s responses the feedback can be used to develop the next iteration (i.e., version) of the product
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How does MVP work or it can work?
It allows us to test our ideas to see how users react. It takes a lot of work to develop an MVP! … and not all products lend themselves to this approach. Approach is based on a Lean Start up Philosophy whose aim is to reduce the length of time spent on product development cycles
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How MVP is used?
‒ A way to see how customers ‘feel’ about a product or idea
| ‒ Based on customer’s responses the feedback can be used to develop the next iteration (i.e., version) of the product
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Why is MVP important? How is this different from the ‘normal’ or ‘typical’ approach to product development?
A major reason why many products (as well as start-up companies) fail is because their initial product is based primarily/solely on assumptions
‒ Entrepreneurs (and software product developers) often assume that their product will provide a better solution to a problem than any existing solution available on the market
‒ They also assume that people care enough about the problem to pay for a solution
‒ But what if these assumptions are wrong?!
An MVP approach allows us to test our ideas to see how users react
It takes a lot of work to develop an MVP! … and not all products lend themselves to this approach
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What is OKR’s purpose and what it’s stand for?
Is business goal is a measurement of progress and can be written in the form of Objectives & Key Results (e.g., OKRs) to create and assess alignment between the strategy and the execution throughout an entire organization. The idea came from Intel
Objective – What you want to achieve
‒ Significant, concrete, and action-oriented
Key Results – How you know if you’ve met your objective
‒ 3 ways to measure + 1
‒ Helps to benchmark and monitor progress
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Primary characteristics of OKR? How is this concept used? When and where is it used?
Objective – (Can be) Qualitative and (should be) Inspirational (i.e., be audacious) – Get people to jump out of bed with excitement. Key Result is Quantitative.
Time Bound – Specification; Doable in a month, quarter, 8 sprints, etc.
Actionable – The objective has to be ‘yours’ to achieve ... Dependencies can make this a challenge!
Simply stated – should fit on one line
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What is a good/reasonable number for OKRs?
12 Key Results more or less means your team has only 1 week to deliver a Key Result. Any more than 12 and you risk losing focus. We have seen that 12 is the maximum a team is able to achieve consistently.
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What is an Objective, Purpose, and Primary characteristics?
Objective is what you want to achieve‒ Significant, concrete, and action-oriented. It (Can be) Qualitative and (should be) Inspirational (i.e., be audacious) – Get people to jump out of bed with excitement. Key Result is Quantitative
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What is a good/reasonable number for OKRs for Objectives?
One
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What is a Key Result, Purpose, Primary characteristics?
Key Results – How you know if you’ve met your objective
‒ 3 ways to measure + 1
‒ Helps to benchmark and monitor progress
Time Bound – Specification; Doable in a month, quarter, 8 sprints, etc.
Actionable – The objective has to be ‘yours’ to achieve ... Dependencies can make this a challenge!
Simply stated – should fit on one line
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What is a good/reasonable number for OKRs for Key Result?
Two to five key results
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What are the OKR Do’s and Don’ts?
Do’s:
‒ Make your OKRs visible
‒ Ensure alignment with management and the team
‒ Make sure there is stretch in the OKR
‒ Focus on the outcome
Don’ts:
‒Use OKRs as a task list
‒Go overboard with the # of OKRs (3-5 is generally enough!)
‒Cascade from the top of the organization down
‒‘Sandbag’ so you can hit your OKRs each quarter
‒Focus on the output
‒Write your OKR to encompass everything your team works on
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OKR Benefits – Why do them?
- Align and connect your employees to your corporate goals
- Give clear direction to every team and individual
- Increase productivity through focus on goals
- Track regular progress towards goals
- Make more effective and informed decisions
- Achieve measurement, accountability, and transparency
- Use regular weekly updates to gain vision and insights
- See how goal progress aligns with the company’s vision, strategy, and top priorities
- Be effective in setting clear and specific goals
- Manage achievement and execution with greater accountability and transparency
- Boost individuals’ engagement and empowerment through your goal-setting process
- Increase insight and transparency across the organization for top-level executives
- Analyze root causes of why objectives are not achieved
- Improve resource allocation and management
- Capture cross-functional dependencies across teams
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Doerr’s OKR Formula – What is it? Its purpose?
I will (Objective) as measured by (this set of key results). A proper goal has to describe both what you will achieve and how you are going to measure its achievement. The key words here are “as measured by,” since measurement is what makes a goal a goal. Without it, you have desire not a goal.
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OKR Template – Components and structure
Vision: Why are you creating your product? What is the founding inspiration?
->
Objective: What is the value that you are delivering with each activity?
->
Key Results: What is the key result you want to derive from each activity?
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Typical/Common OKR measures?
Time Savings, Performance, Quality, Satisfaction, Compliance, and Money
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What is a description/definition for “Product,” especially in contrast to a “Project?”
Product: A product is any item or service you sell to serve a customer's need or want.
Project: Is a high-level overview of why you're doing a project.
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What is a “Digital Product?”
Is any product you sell online that doesn't have physical form or substance.
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What are the four variables that should be met (or realized) for a decision to be made to pursue a ‘Product?’ Explain.
Valuable, Usable, Feasible, Viable
Valuable: Will customers buy it or users choose to use it?
Usable: Can customers/users figure out how to use it?
Feasible: Can this be built? Can we build it with the time, skills, and technology that we have?
Viable: Can this solution work for the purposes for which it has been built?
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As described in our video(s), what are some of the key differences between a Project Mindset and a Product mindset?
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Project Management
•A focus on output
•Success measured by time/scope/budget
•Fixed scope and deliverables
•Limited ability to adapt
•Fixed funding based on scope
•A (generally) stagnant culture
•Waterfall development & delivery
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Product Management
•A focus on outcome
•Success measured by customer value
•Scope constantly evolves
•Facilitates adaptation
•Funding set for duration and capacity
•A learning culture
•Agile development & delivery
```
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Can you explain/describe/differentiate between Project Mindset and a Product mindset (Seven were provided in the video.)
- Project Manager: plan -> scope, how -> schedule and how much it all cost
- Project Triangle: Scope, Schedule, and Budget
- Laid out project as a container for all activities laid out in sequence
- Product Mindset is understand what customers truly need
- Once at scope, find the MVP they can ship to and minimum things to do to validate the assumptions about the market.
- Once they got their things, they execute their plan quickly and they can give their product quickly to the market and collect feedback
- Getting feedback on products drive the triangle changes the scope, schedule, and budget which is called product mindset.
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What did ‘Ralph’ mean when he talked about the idea of a Project as being a ‘container?’ Explain.
For all the activities laid out in sequence where we plan, analyze, design, implement, test, and release the product.
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What does “MVP” stand for? What is the idea behind an MVP? Explain.
Minimum Value Product and Approach is based on a Lean Start-up Philosophy whose aim is to reduce the length of time spent on product development cycles
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What is the “Agile Manifesto?” Without going into the details, what is the basic premise of the Manifesto?
We are uncovering better ways of developing software by doing it and helping others do it. Through this work we have come to value.
- Individuals and Interactions over Processes and Tools
- Working Software over Comprehensive Documentation
- Customer Collaboration over Contract Negotiation
- Responding to Change over Following a Plan
There is value in the items on the right, but we focus on the left
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What is/are the 3-5-3 structure? What are the different roles? Events? Artifacts?
3 Roles
- Product owner: voice of the customer, vision, and known stable interface
- Scrum master: stable process, continuous improvement
- Team: competency, knowledge, and value
5 Events
- Sprint: fixed duration, container for events
- Sprint planning: spring backlog
- Daily scrum: re-plan
- Sprint review: product increment, velocity, feedback
- Retrospective: Kaizen
3 Artifacts
- Product backlog: vision, priorities
- Sprint backlog: known work, capacity
- Product increment: sum of completed work, “done”
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Hubble Space Telescope, What happened? What went wrong?
Early Blurred Image Due to Incorrectly Ground Reflecting Mirror that wasn’t detected at the factory before being launched into space. Once fixed, it provided images of the solar system at better visual and quality
- If the problem had been detected and corrected on the ground, cost = ~$2 million
‒ Once in orbit (at 355 miles altitude), cost +~251 million (not counting the cost of the space shuttle flight itself
