Topic Teasers Vol. 38: Misunderstood Prototyping

Have a question you would like to submit as a potential Topic Teaser? Send a message to Barbee Davis today!

  Agile  

Our manager resists my agile team using prototyping. She believes that the time spent on the prototype takes time away from completing the work we are supposed to deliver during the early iterations. How do we convince her that in the long run, it saves the organization time and money to use this technique?

A. Using company time and resources to create a prototype wastes money and delays the actual completion of a shippable or deployable product or software. Listen to your manager. She is in that position because she knows more than you do.

B.  Managers do not always “hear” unless you speak in their own language and frame practices from the “What’s in it for me?” point of view. Find a good non-software example with budget numbers she can relate to and then translate this to substantiate why you think prototyping is almost mandatory in your situation.

C. If you are not allowed to use prototypes when they are clearly called for, work with your team to slow down the velocity of your output. When asked by the product owner or external customer the reason for the delay, point the finger at your manager.

D. Explain to your manager that she does not know how to develop software. Convey that a firm part of every Scrum cycle is to develop a prototype before moving on to do other user stories in the product backlog.

(scroll down …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.