Live happily ever after without projects
Live happily ever after without projects
A #noprojects book
About the Book
There is a problem between software and projects. Software projects fail, and even when they succeed, there's no guarantee that the resulting product will delight customers.
In the digital age, organizations need to shift from a project-centric mindset to a customer-centric one, in which products are first-class citizens. This mindset shift is at the heart of #noprojects, a deliberate act of continuous product management.
The book analyzes the mismatch between software and projects, then describes the four pillars (and the companion principles) of a #noprojects organization;
- Experiments over projects
- Stable teams over temporary endeavor
- Outcomes over execution
- Products over software
Through this book, you will learn how to stop focusing on projects, create digital products that your customers will love, and live happily ever after.
About the Author
Table of Contents
Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 1.1 Software, Software Products or Digital Service?
- 1.2 A VUCA world
- 1.3 What is a project?
- 1.4 Agile and projects
- 1.5 A product-oriented view of the world
- 1.6 The agile crisis
- 1.7 Business Agility
- 1.8 Evolving organizations
- 1.9 Summary
- 2 Houston, we have a problem
- 2.1 Project versus product
- 2.2 Stakeholders or umarells
- 2.3 Project goals
- 2.4 The homeopathy of software projects
- 2.5 Project management doesn’t fit software
- 2.6 The overhead of project management
- 2.7 On planning and the planning fallacy
- 2.8 Small is better
- 2.9 The defense may speak
- 2.10 You have to have projects, ask your CFO
- 2.11 Summary
- 3 Towards a product mindset
- 3.1 Defining product management
- 3.2 The distinctive traits of digital services
- 3.3 Towards a product mindset
- 3.4 The product life-cycle
- 3.5 Separated at birth
- 3.6 The psychopathology of the project management
- 3.7 Summary
- 4 The road to #noprojects
- 4.1 Solving the project problems
- 4.2 The waypoints
- 4.3 Summary
- 5 Experiments over projects
- 5.1 A unique product and service
- 5.2 Lean startup approach
- 5.3 Are experiments better than projects?
- 5.4 Assumptions validation
- 5.5 Setup and experiment
- 5.6 Doing the experiment
- 5.7 Validate the experiment
- 5.8 Pivot or persevere
- 5.9 Caveats
- 5.10 Customers are not guinea pigs
- 5.11 Duck typing does not apply
- 5.12 From idea to product, with experiments
- 5.13 Experiments are not always code based
- 5.14 Summary
- 6 Stable Teams over Temporary Endeavor
- 6.1 Stable teams
- 6.2 Tuckman’s model
- 6.3 The team’s goal
- 6.4 Dynamic reteaming
- 6.5 Feature teams
- 6.6 There is always so much to do
- 6.7 Waiting times and other wastes
- 6.8 Scaling frameworks and teams
- 6.9 Summary
- 7 Outcomes over Execution
- 7.1 Too much focus on execution, really
- 7.2 What is the outcome?
- 7.3 Value-driven company
- 7.4 Ask what is worth?
- 7.5 On velocity and other vanity metrics
- 7.6 Gather metrics that matter
- 7.7 Summary
- 8 Products over Software
- 8.1 See a need, fill a need
- 8.2 The product vision
- 8.3 It is not just a piece of software
- 8.4 Delight the customers
- 8.5 Is any software a product?
- 8.6 Back to the Agile Manifesto
- 8.7 Keep it simple, stupid!
- 8.8 Summary
- 9 A #noprojects travel guide
- 9.1 The 10 travel guide suggestions
- 9.2 Fund capacity
- 9.3 Evolve software in the team that created it
- 9.4 Work to the team
- 9.5 Lean product portfolio management
- 9.6 Stable, motivated, and accountable teams
- 9.7 Lean budgeting
- 9.8 Scale if and when needed
- 9.9 What is worth
- 9.10 Short feedback loop
- 9.11 Roadmap driven by needs
- 10 Stop making projects and live happily ever after
- 10.1 Follow the map, and the travel guide
- 10.2 It all starts with a budget
- 10.3 Finance and accounting
- 10.4 Lean portfolio management and budgeting
- 10.5 Business cases are still needed
- 10.6 Very, very large projects
- 10.7 On suppliers, outsourcers, and contracts
- 10.8 Summary
- 11 Stop selling projects and live happily ever after
- 11.1 Outsourcing is ineluctably tight to project model
- 11.2 The supplier’s goals
- 11.3 Would you ever buy a project?
- 11.4 What is the customer willing to pay for?
- 11.5 Ask what it is worth
- 11.6 Large scale developments with T&M
- 11.7 People, projects, and other calamities
- 11.8 Stable teams to the rescue
- 11.9 On-site development
- 11.10 Summary
- 12 Innovate without projects
- 12.1 What is innovation?
- 12.2 Experiment or project? That is the question
- 12.3 Goal and scope
- 12.4 Prototypes and proof of concepts
- 12.5 Innovation is a collective achievement
- 12.6 The value of learning
- 12.7 Risks mitigation
- 12.8 Innovation and quality
- 12.9 All the money in the world
- 12.10 Kill the project
- 12.11 Summary
- 13 Conclusion
- 13.1 Say goodbye to projects
- 13.2 Walking the map
- 13.3 What is #noprojects?
- 13.4 The end
- A The product management toolkit
- B Beyond Budgeting
- C Manifesto for agile software development
- D On customer-supplier relationships
- E On writing
- References
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