Project Use Cases
Examples of projects I've managed that created significant value for Mailchimp
Product Increment Planning
SAFe style
Director of Project Mgmt - Mailchimp
Challenge:
Teams were working independently with no framework for visibility to leadership. Change requests from leadership were frequent, altered scope and created communication collisions
Experiment:
Teams came together and planned for quarterly increments. These plans were presented in front of the entire company and kept in a public place. Teams showcased work in regular increments to leadership for any visionary guidance.
Results:
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Complete transparency
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Clear direction for development teams
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Feedback loops that didn't exist before
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Opportunities for course corrections and changes
Organizing Dev Teams into Domains
Director of Project Mgmt - Mailchimp
Challenge:
Teams wanted more autonomy to solve business problems and act as independently as possible - including staffing their own squads.
Experiment:
Break the development organization up into business domains and allow those larger teams to self organize into multiple squads to create value for our customers. This required a framework to allow for autonomy but at the same time keep an eye on accountability and great communication.
Results:
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An organized division of work by business need
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Domain leaders responsible for their domains
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Autonomy that the teams asked for
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An official framework for software development
Release Management Enhancements
Project Management Consultant - Mailchimp
Challenge:
Release management for teams working on the same or dependent code that have the freedom to release at will can create undesirable collisions.
Experiment:
A framework of light but intentional communication was put in place. Release plans were revamped for simplicity, a spreadsheet of releases was made available to help with coordination of date choices and a release slack channel just for this purpose with a repeatable pattern for use and sign off sealed the deal!
Results:
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Almost absent of collisions when the framework is followed
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Opportunities for great questions - which should be released first and why?
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Communication availability for anyone who wanted it - anyone could observe and be informed
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Engineers didn't feel like they were alone anymore