Product Definition and Development

In an agile world, the product and the development teams work together in a symbiotic relationship.

What do we need?
Product owners define the MVP goal and feature prioritization, and then manage the backlog. The product team sets the strategic vision, reviewing, prioritizing and refining the backlog, and planning the releases (e.g. Minimally Viable Product (MVP), Most Lovable Product (MLP)). The MVP is the MVP – this is what we want to show the market to wow them. Product teams define and document agreed-to de-scoping of some items.

What can we do?
Development and delivery teams size the work and schedule it based on capacity. The development teams develop and integrate the applications and services according to the product backlog priorities. In monthly planning sessions, teams see what the development teams can accomplish in the next program increment based on capacity, sizing (e.g. t-shirt sizes, story points), and velocity of the teams.

What will we get done by when?
Teams coordinate and negotiate what is in every Program Increment (PI). The PI has business value and may be a shippable product. The product team evaluates what is being produced in that PI so that they can determine if it is a shippable product, if so to whom it should be shipped, and to define when we will have an MVP. The MVP date will be determined by the scope defined by product and the ability for the development teams to produce that product.

image credit: created by Scrum@Scale