I was reading this very interesting article by Darren
Smith, General Manager @ Thoughtworks about The Agile Taxi Driver.
In this article the
author goes on to explain how both the customer and the teams (Taxi Driver) are
both equally responsible for delivering on schedule with good quality and
within the designated budget. It is a mutual responsibility both for the
customer and the development teams to talk to each other and ensure course
correction so that we delivery on time and budget with quality.
This story inspires me
to draw an analogy on behaviors between teams and product owners where the
teams are the Taxi Drivers and the Product Owners are the immediate customers. A lot of times teams
tend to do just exactly what the Product Owner asks them to do and there is
nothing wrong with that. What we tend to miss out is the aspect of collaboration
/ discussion / interaction with the Product owners regularly.
PO's are best placed
to make priority calls because they have the business context from which to
decide. However, it is important for teams to expose factors that the PO's
might not have considered as early as possible so that the PO can make the
right decision. An example of this is teams
clustering related user stories. This info if available to the PO in advance could help the PO make better priority decision to include related user stories
in a sprint for better flow efficiency and throughput.
The intent is not to take the decision out of the PO / customer's hands; instead to help the PO / customer make the best decision given all of the relevant information at the time.
Read @ Darren
Smith, General Manager @ Thoughtworks about The Agile Taxi Driver and share your thoughts and comments.
