Don Hanson II, Intel Security
The challenges associated with sustaining a successful product often take managers by surprise.
Most sustaining planning discussions follow along the lines of “that would be a wonderful problem to have, as it means we will have acquired paying customers! Bah! We’ll cross that bridge when we get there.”
When you acquire paying customers and are faced with the problem of resolving customer escalations in a timely fashion, the reactive nature of sustaining a product presents challenges with agile development methodologies. Over time these issues can chip away at a team’s velocity, morale and ultimately retention.
There are two common approaches for handling sustaining; whole team sustaining and dedicated sustaining teams. Each has strengths and weaknesses that must be actively managed and overcome.
This paper introduces a new, blended approach that provides many of the positives and minimizes the negatives of the previous two. We’ll discuss the warning signs of the two common approaches to help you decide if this new approach is right for you. Then we’ll cover the five simple best practices for easily apply this new approach with your team.
Target Audience: Intermediate
2015 Technical Paper, Don Hanson II, Paper, Slides, Notes, Video.
