Allan Kelly

A Little Book about Requirements and User Stories

OKRs are about goals bigger than the next story. OKRs prioritise purpose and strategy over backlogs. Objectives are big goals; key results are smaller goals that build towards the objective. Does your agile team get lead astray by burning fires? Do you struggle to keep your agile team focused? Do you feel the need for more than just doing the top of the backlog every two weeks? Are you using, or want to use, OKRs with an agile team? Then this is the book for you. Acclaimed author Allan Kelly has written a short guide to OKRs, writing them, organizing to deliver and the pitfalls. Allan is the author of multiple books on agile and has given advice and training for over 10 years. Now he turns his attention to OKRs. In this book he doesn't try to sell OKRs - others can tell you why OKRs are great. Allan describes his practical experience working with an agile team adopting OKRs, day-by-day, quarter-by-quarter. Allan's advice includes: be really specific in setting goals, involve the whole team in setting OKRs, think broad when setting then execute narrowly, set analogue not binary OKRs and, most controversially, throw away your backlog and let OKRs drive everything you do. Initially sceptical about OKRs Allan found them a good fit with agile; OKRs became an effective means of focus teams, exposing problems, communicating with senior managers and a powerful means of asking bigger questions about product strategy and value. OKRs and agile work well together because they are both outcome oriented and results focused. When used right OKRs give power and authority to teams - one could even say OKRs create test first management. Yet OKR can be a double edge-sword, used poorly they can re-introduce command-and-control and hinder agile working. Allan addresses problems with predictability, aspirations, culture, targets and annual reviews. "Easy read, super useful book for my current context at work right now!" @c_combe on Twitter "I especially like the honest portrayal of top-down MBO OKR-setting and its problems. And providing tips on how to go about using OKRs in a different way." @anttiki "I recommend heartily and have done so openly on the book seller's site - brilliant, balanced and lived experience and feedback from Allan" @rj_number_one "Initially, I was thinking to join some OKR training but honestly felt this book is good enough to get one on the right path!" @ProdScrumMaster

How to Create & Deliver Objectives & Key Results for Teams

Succeeding with OKRs in Agile

Projects fail. Some say 40% of all IT projects fail, some say 70%. And it has been that way for years.Each project fails for its own reasons but they all share one thing in common: the Project Model. Could it be the project model itself which creates failure?In this tour de force Allan Kelly explains why the project model is a poor fit for managing software development. Working from industry recognized definitions of projects he describes how the model deviates from reality then goes on to discuss: Why focusing on time, scope, and cost damages software, creates goal displacement and reduces quality. How projects miss the bigger picture. Why maximizing value demands work across projects. When debt is good and how projects increase technical debt to the detriment of value delivery. The false projects and conflicts that arise when companies apply the language of projects to continuing work. Projects end. Successful software continues. Twenty-first century digital businesses want to continue and grow."In the book Project Myopia, Allan Kelly explains in lucid terms why the 'project' model is so unsuitable for most modern software development. In fact, he argues, using projects is actually damaging to business outcomes for organisations building and running software systems." Matt Skelton"Project Myopia is the book I wish I'd had years ago, because it clearly explains why projects are the wrong way to manage software development, from several perspectives." Peter Hilton"If you've ever seen Allan present at conference, you'll know he does this with a lot of energy, and that's how he writes too. It's a book you rattle through, feeling enthused, because of that - yes, we can fix all this stuff!"

Project Myopia: Why Projects Damage Software #NoProjects

In the digital world, the business is technology, and technology is the business. Agile software development was the first wave of process change for digital business. Now it is time to update management models and thinking. Continuous Digital sets out a new management model for digital business. A management model that takes Agile to the next level. Allan Kelly describes how software is omnipresent in digital business, how software is an asset and needs treating as such. He describes new management paradigms for the digital and agile age: - How dis-economies of scale not economies of scale rule software development - When planning delays action - How value changes over time - The lifecycle of stable value-seeking teams - Budget alternatives for funding software development Digitisation forces companies to rethink the way they organize themselves. This book offers a template for new businesses and new thinking on managing that work.

Continuous Digital

Every product owner faces a complex and unique set of challenges within their team. This provides each individual the opportunity to fill the role with different ambitions, skills, and insights. Your product ownership journey can take a variety of paths, and The Art of Agile Product Ownership is here to be your guide. Author Allan Kelly, who delivers Agile training courses to major companies, pulls from his experience to help you discover what it takes to be a successful product owner. You will learn how you need to define your role within a team and how you can best incorporate ownership with strategy. With the Agile method, time is the key factor, and after using the lessons from this book you will confidently be able to synthesize features, functionality, and scope against delivery. You will find out how other team members such as the UX designer and business analyst can support and enhance your role as product owner, and how every type of company structure can adapt for optimal agility. The Art of Agile Product Ownership is a beacon for current product owners, programmers who are ready to take the next step towards ownership, and analysts transitioning into the product space. This book helps you determine for yourself the best way to fill the product owner role so that you utilize your unique combination of skills. Product ownership is central to a successful Agile team, and after reading this book, you will be more than ready for the challenge. What You Will Learn Explores activities the product owner needs to do in order to write good and valuable user stories Identifies skills product owners can learn from product managers and business analysts Demonstrates how to make decisions based on business and customer demand rather than technical needs and feasibility Who This Book Is ForThis is a book for anyone becoming a product owner: developers and programmers, who, after some years at the code-face, are ready to step up to the next stage to own the product that they have been coding. Business Analysts and Product Managers who see themselves transitioning into the a product owner role will find value in this book in understanding their new role and how the work is the same and how it is different

A Guide for Product Managers, Business Analysts, and Entrepreneurs

The Art of Agile Product Ownership

A must-have recipe book for building software Perhaps you can relate to this all-too common scenario: you know all about your software product?but could do with some help in understanding the strategic side of things. If so, this book is the one-stop resource you'll need in order to become a successful software entrepreneur. Patterns expert Allan Kelly provides you with the step-by-step route that needs to be followed in order to understand business strategy and operations. Each chapter starts out with a solid introduction and theoretical overview, which is then further illustrated with patterns and case studies, all aimed at helping you move into the management of software. Teaches you the ropes of business strategy and operations for software Places special emphasis on the patterns for those who make software for sale Addresses patterns philosophy, patterns strategies, business strategy patterns, and software company lifecycle Shares practical tools, tips, and examples of best practices so you can see how each specific pattern fits in and needs to be implemented. Business Patterns for Software Development divulges strategies, operations, and structures for building successful software.

Business Patterns for Software Developers

Changing Software Development explains why software development is an exercise in change management and organizational intelligence. An underlying belief is that change is learning and learning creates knowledge. By blending the theory of knowledge management, developers and managers will gain the tools to enhance learning and change to accommodate new innovative approaches such as agile and lean computing. Changing Software Development is peppered with practical advice and case studies to explain how and why knowledge, learning and change are important in the development process. Today, managers are pre-occupied with knowledge management, organization learning and change management; while software developers are often ignorant of the bigger issues embedded in their work. This innovative book bridges this divide by linking the software world of technology and processes to the business world of knowledge, learning and change.

Learning to Become Agile

Changing Software Development

Art of Agile Product Ownership

"How do I make my user stories smaller?" "What is the right size for a user story?" "What is the difference between an Epic and a Story? And where do Tasks and Sub-tasks fit in?" "Who writes user stories?" "Why user stories?" ""Do I have to use User Stories?"" Allan Kelly found himself answering these questions, and similar ones, again and again so... ""As a ... I want ... So that ... "" - this humble little who-what-why template has become the most widely used means of communicating requirements for Agile teams. In this slim volume Allan Kelly provides practical advice on writing, reading and working with user stories.

Allan Kelly

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