This might not be a popular opinion, but the Scrum Master is NOT the most important role on an Agile team - GASP!. If not the Scrum Master, then who? Product Owners are the most overlooked, underfunded, and misunderstood roles no one is talking about as it relates to the success (or failure) of Agile-based delivery in government. Join me to find out how government agencies can have more success by understanding the criticality of the Product Owner role and how by investing in the Product Owner and Product Management roles can lead to more predictable product (not project) delivery, happier customers, and a more successful mission.

1. October 13, 2021
The MOST Important
Agile Role
NO ONE is Talking About

2. ● About me
● Is failure the new norm?
● Common vocabulary as it
relates to Product
Owner/Manager (PO/PM)
● Organizational & cultural
challenges
● Discuss the need to pivot to
customer centricity
● PO/PM responsibilities
● Lean Agile principles to aid the
PO/PM
● PO/PM success factors

4. Bill Annibell, SPC
Digital Polygon
COO & Chief Agilist
bill@digitalpolygon.com
● Agile enthusiast & change agent
● Recovering technologist
● Party DJ, and former singer in a
rock and roll band
https://www.linkedin.com/in/billannibell/
@billannibell

6. ● 21+ Years
● 850,000+
miles
● 3+ hours of
commute
time daily
● Excludes
train, Uber,
cabs, and
Metro rides

7. 3 hours x 5 days
x 48 weeks =
720 hours
-OR-
18 weeks of
sitting in a car

9. Is failure the norm?

12. 87% of Large
Government
Projects
Challenged and/or
Failed
The Standish Group’s CHAOS database: 2010-2014

13. The fundamental question I continue to ask myself is this...
Under what circumstances are government IT
projects the most successful?

14. Emergent Situations
(e.g. Natural disaster response, COVID, etc.)
Abject Failures
Particularly, very public ones (e.g. Healthcare.gov)
Mandates
Executive or Congressional (e.g. often in response
to either of the above)

15. But why?

16. HHS and CMS made many missteps throughout development and implementation that led to the
poor launch of HealthCare.gov.
● Most critical was the absence of clear leadership, which caused delays in decision making
and a lack of clarity in project tasks.
● Additional missteps:
○ Devoting too much time to developing policy, which left too little time for developing the
website, and failing to properly manage its key website development contract.
○ CMS's organizational structure and culture also hampered progress, including poor
coordination between policy and technical work. CMS continued on a failing path
despite signs of trouble, making rushed corrections that proved insufficient.
Following the launch, CMS and contractors pivoted quickly to corrective action, reorganizing the work
to improve execution. Key factors that contributed to recovery of the website included:
● Adopting a "badgeless" culture for the project, wherein all CMS staff and contractors worked
together as a team
● Practice of "ruthless prioritization" that aligned work efforts with the most important and
achievable goals.
CMS recovered the website for high consumer use within 2 months, and adopted more effective
organizational practices.
HHS OIG - HealthCare.gov: Case Study of
CMS Management of the Federal Marketplace

18. Title: Is simply the label you have
within your company or organization,
based on the position you hold.
Role: Is what you actually do
regardless of title.

19. Program Manager ˈprō-ˌgram ma-ni-jər
noun
: can be thought of as a “super” project manager. His or her role is mainly operational since this
person is responsible for planning and governance and for overseeing the successful delivery of
the program’s output/product. That is, the new capability.
: the action of carrying out the coordinated organisation, direction and implementation of a dossier
of projects and transformation activities to achieve outcomes and realise benefits of strategic
importance to the business
Project Management Institute

20. Project Manager ˈprä-ˌjekt ma-ni-jər
noun
: play the lead role in planning, executing, monitoring, controlling and closing projects.
: have a broad and flexible toolkit of techniques, resolving complex, interdependent activities
into tasks and sub-tasks that are documented, monitored and controlled. They adapt their
approach to the context and constraints of each project, knowing that no "one size" can fit all
the variety of projects.
CIO.com + Project Management Institute

21. our Scrum Masters
We

22. Scrum Master ‘skrəm ma-stər
noun
: the Scrum Team member tasked with fostering an effective and productive
working environment and guiding others to understand Scrum values, principles
and practices. Scrum Masters tend to be people-oriented, have a high level of
emotional intelligence, and find joy in helping team members to grow.
: servant leaders
: generally, well understood role within an Agile organization
: otherwise known as Agile bad@$$es
Scrum Alliance + (Me!)

23. Product Manager ˈprä-(ˌ)dəkt ˈma-ni-jər
noun
: responsible for defining and supporting the building of desirable, feasible, viable, and sustainable
products that meet customer needs over the product-market lifecycle.
: the second MOST overlooked, underfunded, and misunderstood Agile role in government.
Scaled Agile + (Me!)

24. Product Owner ˈprä-(ˌ)dəkt ˈō-nər
noun
: a full-time member of the Agile Team responsible for defining Stories and prioritizing the Team
Backlog to streamline the execution of program priorities while maintaining the conceptual and
technical integrity of the Features or components for the team.
: is one person, not a committee.
: the MOST overlooked, underfunded, and misunderstood Agile role in government.
Scaled Agile + Scrum.org + (Me!)

25. Organizational & Cultural Challenges

26. This is how we organize.
This is how we deliver.
This is why we struggle to innovate and adapt.
Mission
Execs
Mission
PMO
OCIO
Mission
Contractor
OCIO
Contractor
Agency
Execs

27. This is how we organize.
This is how we deliver.
This is why we struggle to innovate and adapt.
Project
Manager
Business
Analysts
Design
Team
Architects
Developers
Testers

28. This is how we plan.
This is how we execute.
This is why we fail to consistently deliver results.

29. This is how we prioritize (we often don’t).
This is how we manage risk (we often don’t).
This is why we struggle to produce value.

30. This is how we operate.
This is how we maintain.
This is why we struggle to build-in quality.

31. ● Organizational silos
● Ineffective, often sequential
planning & budgeting
● Lack of prioritization, risk
identification, and identification
of inter/intra-team dependencies
● Manual Processes
Organizational & Cultural Challenges

32. Customer Centricity

33. ● Every decision we make must be focused on
driving value to the customer
● Adopting a Product vs. Project mentality
● Organizational Human Centered Design
● This takes a continuous learning culture that
stresses individual and organizational
commitment to learning
● May require Agile coaching until the processes
have become the ”new normal” and are ready
for automation
Customer Centricity

39. 1. Take an economic view - Digital assets evolve over time. Tradeoffs must be made between risk, cost of
delay, operational costs, etc.
2. Apply systems thinking - Just because you optimize an individual component does not mean you are
optimizing the entire system (same goes for organizations, too).
3. Assume variability; preserve options - assume requirements are going to change, have multiple options.
Leverage cross-functional teams to solve toughest problems.
4. Build incrementally with fast, integrated learning cycles - Do you want faster customer feedback?
Build incrementally and get their feedback early and often.
5. Base milestones on objective evaluation of working systems - integrate system early and often.
6. Visualize and limit work in progress (WIP), reduce batch sizes, and manage queue length -
Kanban!!! REMEMBER: Humans beings STINK at multitasking and estimating work. Prioritize and re-prioritize!
7. Apply cadence, synchronize with cross-domain planning - Dependent teams (I’m talking to you
marketing and web teams) should plan and execute together at the same time and pace.
8. Unlock the intrinsic motivation of knowledge workers - Provide time for exploration and
experimentation, individual autonomy and purpose and innovation will blossom.
9. Decentralize decision making - Those closest to the customers are best suited to solve said problems.
10. Organize around value - Customer centricity requires an understanding of the customer’s journey as well as
the processes and systems that support said journey.
Lean Agile Principles to Aid Product Managers and Owners

40. HHS and CMS made many missteps throughout development and implementation that led to the
poor launch of HealthCare.gov.
● Most critical was the absence of clear leadership, which caused delays in decision making
and a lack of clarity in project tasks.
● Additional missteps:
○ Devoting too much time to developing policy, which left too little time for developing the
website, and failing to properly manage its key website development contract.
○ CMS's organizational structure and culture also hampered progress, including poor
coordination between policy and technical work. CMS continued on a failing path
despite signs of trouble, making rushed corrections that proved insufficient.
Following the launch, CMS and contractors pivoted quickly to corrective action, reorganizing the work
to improve execution. Key factors that contributed to recovery of the website included:
● Adopting a "badgeless" culture for the project, wherein all CMS staff and contractors worked
together as a team
● Practice of "ruthless prioritization" that aligned work efforts with the most important and
achievable goals.
CMS recovered the website for high consumer use within 2 months, and adopted more effective
organizational practices.
HHS OIG - HealthCare.gov: Case Study of
CMS Management of the Federal Marketplace

41. 1. Product Management and Product Ownership are full-time jobs
a. Own the leadership responsibility
b. Invest in the role
c. Provide PO/PM training and take it
2. Make quick decisions based on fast feedback cycles by NEVER missing a system demo
3. Break down the silos and embrace a “one team” culture
4. Agile teams have fixed capacity, and requirements will change - “ruthlessly” PRIORITIZE and
RE-PRIORITIZE the backlog regularly and understand and communicate the impacts to
executives, stakeholders, and your teams - their feedback may help you!
5. Addressing technical debt and maintenance activities leads to more flexible and scalable systems
- since you own the product and sprint backlogs, PLAN FOR IT, REGULARLY
6. Don’t EVER assume you know what your customers/users want - HCD is a continuous process
that the PM owns
7. Adopt a continuous learning culture
Product Owner and Manager Success Factors

42. Thank you!
Together We Can Build it Better