Abstract: Like the weather, everyone talks about Vision but no one seems to do anything about it. Being an effective vision-holder is one of the key responsibilities of Product Owners, one they are rarely trained to perform. We think that developing a vision is easy: we show them a simple structured vision template or Product Box and say, “Fill that in!” We don’t usually show them the process, principles and artifacts that help to form that vision, in the first place, and to keep it alive and vital, in the second place.
Vision is rarely simple; it is never simple when it really matters. This talk is about the practicalities of forming, communicating and maintaining Visions for large and complex products and portfolios. The techniques described have been developed to help large agile programs to (a) evaluate the status quo and identify needs against business objectives, (b) conceive and differentiate a Future which satisfies these needs, (c) map the steps necessary to move from the Present to the Future, (d) express and prioritize these steps as epics, features and stories, and (e) establish a rhythm of keeping the vision current and of using it to guide agile planning. This talk will be a fast survey of a deep subject. Together, we will explore that strange ground that lies between Today and Tomorrow and find that there are practical ways to find a path from one to the other … and to keep from getting lost.
Learning Outcomes: - Identify the fundamental challenges – and paradoxes – of creating a Vision.
- Learn what value proposition and product positioning are and a few basic techniques to get started developing them.
- Appreciate the interrelationship of product and architecture in forming Vision.
- Learn how to express a Vision in term of epics, features and stories in a roadmap – and the practical limits of analysis and preplanning.
- Discuss the consequences, for teams and organizations, of not having a good, current Vision.
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