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Agile Excellence for Product Managers by Greg Cohen

Agile Excellence for Product Managers

$ 24.95

Creating winning products with Agile development teams

Agile Excellence for Product Managers is a must-read for Product Managers making the switch to Agile development, as well as product owners and project managers looking for better ways to organize and lead in their organizations.

This book also serves as the text for the 280 Group’s Agile Excellence for Product Managers and Product Owners in-person training course and online self-study course and exam.

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Product Description

Software companies are rapidly turning to Agile development to cope with fast changing markets and borderless competition. Yet little has been written to guide Product Managers through the transition to working with Agile teams and the huge benefits that doing so affords. Agile Excellence is a plain-speaking guide on how to work with Agile development teams to achieve phenomenal product success.

Agile Excellence for Product Managers covers the following topics

  • The why and how of Agile development, including Scrum, XP, and Lean
  • The role of Product Management
  • Release planning
  • Release management
  • Road mapping
  • Creating and prioritizing a product backlog
  • Documentation
  • Organizational implication
  • And more

Author: Greg Cohen
Senior Consultant, 280 Group

Table of Contents

Foreword by Brian Lawley

Preface

1. Why Agile is Good for Product Management

  • 1.1 Traditional Software Development
  • 1.2 The Cost of Change
  • 1.3 Agile Software Development
  • 1.4 What’s In It For You?
  • 1.5 Why now?
  • 1.6 The Agile Manifesto
  • 1.7 The Common Threads of Agile
  • 1.8 Why Agile Works
  • 1.9 Product Management Just Got Better

2. Understanding Scrum

  • 2.1 Overview of Scrum
  • 2.2 An Iteration
  • 2.3 The Scrum Team
  • 2.4 Sprint Planning
  • 2.5 Daily Standup
  • 2.6 Feedback and the Role of Unit Testing
  • 2.7 Sprint Review
  • 2.8 Sprint Retrospective
  • 2.9 Sprint Termination

3. Release Management

  • 3.1 Sizing Requirements
  • 3.2 Managing Velocity and Tracking Releases
  • 3.3 Managing an Iteration

4. Release Planning

  • 4.1 Create the Product Backlog
  • 4.2 Map Sprints to the Release and Product Backlog
  • 4.3 Iteration Planning Exercise
  • 4.4 Iteration Planning Exercise Answer
  • 4.5 Working Across Multiple Iterations
  • 4.6 Defining Requirements as Needed
  • 4.7 The Role of User Experience Design in Agile

5. Documentation

  • 5.1 User Stories
  • 5.2 Non-Functional Requirements
  • 5.3 Splitting Stories
  • 5.4 Other Documents

6. Starting Out

  • 6.1 Selecting the Team
  • 6.2 Creating a Product Strategy
  • 6.3 The Release Plan
  • 6.4 Creating the Product Backlog in a Hurry
  • 6.5 Prioritizing the Product Backlog by Business Value
  • 6.6 Selecting an Iteration Length
  • 6.7 Estimating Stories
  • 6.8 Testing and Beta Strategies
  • 6.9 Impact on Sales and Marketing

7. Organizing Around Agile

  • 7.1 Who Should Be Doing What?
  • 7.2 Managing Multiple Projects
  • 7.3 Obstacles to Team Performance

8. A Look at Extreme Programming and Lean Software Development

  • 8.1 Extreme Programming
  • 8.2 Lean Software Development

9. Conclusion

    • 9.1 Process Maturity and Agile
    • 9.2 Sweet Spots for Agile Development
    • 9.3 Organizational Agility Trade-Offs
    • 9.4 Agile Product Management Review
    • 9.5 Leadership
    • 9.6 Visibility, Flexibility, and Quality

Glossary

Appendix: Additional Resources

Reviews

Greg Cohen makes a compelling case why Agile development is a boon for product managers and offers keen insight into leveraging it to win in the marketplace. It is a must read for any product manager looking to make the change.

-Gina Han, Senior Product Manager, Intuit

This is an outstanding book. With insight and clarity, Greg Cohen shows the ‘hows’ and ‘whys’ of Agile product management. It is an essential guide for any Agile team member–even if not a product manager. ‘Agile Excellence(tm) for Product Managers’ will help teams focus effort where it really counts

-Therese Padilla, President, AIPMM (Association of International Product Marketing and Management)

There are plenty of books that explain Agile, but they are mostly from the development point of view. ‘Agile Excellence(tm) for Product Managers’ provides the unique perspective of how product management professionals fit into the Agile framework and describes how Agile and product management  fit together. Cohen provides a comprehensive treatise on being an Agile  product manager.

-Ivan Chalif, Director of Product Marketing at Alterian and Chief Blogger at TheProductologist.com

If making the move to Agile seems daunting, then read this book. Greg  Cohen lays out the necessary steps to succeed with Agile.

-Anar Taori, Senior Product Manager, VMware

This book is invaluable for any product manager looking to learn how to fully leverage Agile development to create better products faster

-Bob Hsiung, Development Manager at MIT Media Lab

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