Who/when: This assignment is completed by each student when he/she takes the Product Owner role during a sprint.
Genre: Written narrative
Audience: Future Product Owners in the team
Purpose: Prepare for conversation with the client; reflect on the mechanics of the first meeting, and on comments from previous Product Owners; suggest improvements in how client meetings are conducted.
Communication skills: reading, writing, speaking, listening

The role of Product Owner requires you to keep in touch with the client, informing him/her of the project status and communicating changes in requirements back to your team. This kind of communication can be challenging, for a couple of reasons. First, the client lies outside of your world as a Software Engineering student; there are things that are familiar to you that your client knows nothing about, and vice versa. You need to establish a shared body of knowledge with your client. Second, your client is most likely a busy person, and you should make the most of your limited "face time". So you need to think not only about what topics to cover, but how to cover them in a quick and effective way.

Every conversation is situated in a particular location, at a particular time, with particular participants with particular attitudes, styles, etc. These situated aspects don't really have much to do with the actual content of the conversation, but they can have a great effect. Here are some examples:

• Where is the conversation located? What are the seating arrangements? Can each of you see what the other is doing clearly? Or perhaps the meeting is not face-to-face - what are the limitations of communicating via phone or computer?
• Is the conversation centered around shared tools, like a whiteboard, a paper, a computer? Who is in control of the tools: for instance, if you're using a computer, who is doing the "steering" (manipulating the mouse and keyboard)?
• What are the identities of the participants? Do you perceive some as having greater authority, or greater power, than others?
• What is the style of the conversation? Is is following a set agenda, or is it more freeform? Is technical jargon used?
• What is the mood? Does the client seem serious, humorous, distracted, impatient? How about you?

We will observe these "details" and consider their consequences.

Outcomes. In this assignment you will get experience in the following skills:

1. assessing the client's needs and knowledge in advance, and identifying the content of the upcoming conversation: what to inform and ask the client about;
2. identifying the situated aspects of a conversation (outside of the actual verbal content) that can affect the value of the conversation;
3. reading written reports from previous Product Owners, and using the information in them to improve your own Product Owner performance;
4. writing a detailed narrative of a conversational situation (in this case, the conversation between client and Product Owner);
5. critiquing the actions described in the narrative, proposing suggestions for how to improve them.

There are three parts to this assignment: one to be completed before meeting the client face to face for the first time, and the other two to be completed immediately after the meeting (the same day). If face to face meetings are impossible, some other real-time form of communication (e.g. phone, videoconference) will suffice.

Please read the entire assignment before starting it.

In each part, I want you to spend the first half of the time period thinking about what you're going to write, possibly taking notes, but not writing your final answers. Then spend the second half on the writing.

Part 1 (before meeting). Time: 40 minutes.

Write answers to the following:

1. Give ten things you know about your client. (If you don't know ten things, go out and learn ten.)
2. Give three things you would like to learn about your client during your meeting.
3. Give three things related to the project that your client (probably) knows and you would like to know.
4. Give three things related to the project that you know and your client would (probably) like to know.
5. Give three specific ways in which the above information will affect the way you conduct the meeting.

Part 2 (before meeting). Time: 40 minutes.

Read the two most recent Client Meeting Evaluation documents, submitted by previous Product Owners. Write answers to the following:

1. Given their experiences, what will you do differently in your experience with the client? Why?
2. What will you keep the same? Why?

Part 3 (after meeting). Time: 60 minutes. It's important to finish this part as soon as possible after the meeting, so that the details are still fresh in your mind.

If you look at a written description of a play, you will usually find stage directions (describing where, when and how the action takes place) interleaved with the dialogue. Here's a small example.

(Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Act II, Part 1)

Garden at the Manor House. A flight of grey stone steps leads up to the house. The garden, an old-fashioned one, full of roses. Time of year, July. Basket chairs, and a table covered with books, are set under a large yew-tree.

[Miss Prism discovered seated at the table. Cecily is at the back watering flowers.]

Miss Prism. [Calling.] Cecily, Cecily! Surely such a utilitarian occupation as the watering of flowers is rather Moulton’s duty than yours? Especially at a moment when intellectual pleasures await you. Your German grammar is on the table. Pray open it at page fifteen. We will repeat yesterday’s lesson.

Cecily. [Coming over very slowly.] But I don’t like German. It isn’t at all a becoming language. I know perfectly well that I look quite plain after my German lesson.

Describe your meeting with the client in a similar fashion. You don't have to write the dialogue verbatim - you can just paraphrase it: e.g. "Client [confused] wonders why there isn't an 'undo' option". Try to capture as much of the stage direction detail as you can: the setup of the location, where you sat (or stood), what kinds of objects were used, the speaking style, etc.

Note: The client will not see any of the written results.

Part 4 (after meeting). Time: 30 minutes.

Write answers to the following:

1. List all the things you learned at the meeting.
2. List at least three things that you should have asked or said (but didn't).
3. Look back at your stage directions. Identify at least one aspect that you found effective, and explain why.
4. Identify at least one aspect that you would change, and explain why.

Post all of your written material to the wiki.

Grading criteria

1. Did you demonstrate knowledge about the client?
2. Did you identify a robust set of specific, meaningful issues to discuss at the meeting?
3. Did you demonstrate a careful reading of earlier Product Owner documents, through references to specific items in their descriptions?
4. Does your narrative display an attention to all aspects of your conversation with the client — both verbal and nonverbal?
5. In your reflection on the client meeting, do you identify specific, concrete positive and negative aspects?
6. Are the technical aspects of your writing sound: organization, grammar; spelling; complete sentences; tailored to the intended audience, with unfamiliar terms defined?

Grading rubric

Resources

Paul Kutsche. Field Ethnography: A Manual for Doing Cultural Anthropology. Prentice Hall, 1997. ISBN 0138894523.

Michael Agar. The Professional Stranger: An Informal Introduction to Ethnography. Academic Press, 1996. ISBN 0120444704.

John Van Maanen. Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography. University of Chicago, 1988. ISBN 0226849627.

Creating Product Owner Success. http://www.infoq.com/articles/agile-product-owner

Memorandum of Conversation: Dr. Henry Kissinger and Chatichai Choonhavan, November 1975. http://www.mekong.net/cambodia/kissinger_chatichai.htm

Example Screenplays. http://www.makingthefilm.com/screening4.html