Meetings (Software)

Roles

In a customer meeting, especially within the context of Scrum or any agile project management framework, the roles played by different team members are critical to ensuring that the meeting is productive, stays on track, and achieves its objectives. Here’s an elaboration on the roles you’ve mentioned:

Meeting Chair

• Manages the Agenda: The chairperson is responsible for setting up and managing the agenda before and during the meeting. This includes ensuring all relevant topics are covered and prioritizing them based on importance and relevance to the current stage of the project.
• Keeps the Meeting to Time: One of the key responsibilities is to ensure the meeting starts and ends on time. They monitor the duration of each agenda item, making sure discussions remain concise and on point.
• Constrains Discussions: The chair keeps discussions focused on the agenda items, preventing deviation into unrelated topics. This helps in making efficient use of the meeting time and maintaining the flow of discussion aligned with the meeting goals.

Product Owner

• May Combine with Chair: In some cases, the Product Owner may also serve as the meeting chair. This is practical because the Product Owner is often deeply involved in both the planning and execution phases of the project and has a good understanding of the agenda’s priority points.
• Role Specifics: As a key stakeholder, the Product Owner communicates the vision and requirements of the project, discusses the product backlog items that need attention, and gathers feedback to refine the project goals.

Lead Demonstrator

• Demonstration Leader: This role is typically responsible for presenting the work done by the team. This includes live demonstrations of the product, showcasing new features, and explaining how changes and additions will meet the stakeholders’ requirements.
• Technical Clarification: The Lead Demonstrator also answers technical questions related to the demonstration, providing clarity on how certain features work or how challenges were overcome during development.

Note Taker

• Documenting the Meeting: The Note Taker is crucial for recording the discussions, decisions, and action items agreed upon during the meeting. This documentation is vital for maintaining a record of the project’s progress and ensuring that nothing important is forgotten or overlooked.
• Clear and Accurate Records: They must ensure that the notes are clear, accurate, and detailed enough to be useful for team members who may not have attended the meeting or need to refer back to the discussion later.

Checker

• Verification Role: The Checker’s role involves verifying the accuracy of information being presented and discussed during the meeting. This could relate to project data, progress reports, and compliance with agreed specifications.
• Ensures Consistency: They ensure that all presentations and documents shared during the meeting are consistent with previous submissions and align with the project’s current status and goals.

Each of these roles contributes to a structured, focused, and effective customer meeting, facilitating clear communication and decision-making between the development team and the stakeholders.

Time Boxing

Good practice to estimate the time needed for each agenda item and record this on the agenda.

• Helps the team decide how best to use the time in the meeting.
• Helps the chair decide when to pause a discussion of an agenda item.
• Discussions that over-run should be paused.
  • Use extra time at the end of the meeting if available.
  • Otherwise, make a task to resolve the issue with the customer offline.

Time Boxing Example

1. Review of Progress (10mins)

• Web Application with local authentication and registration.
• Automatic Deployment to Production Environment.
• First Dashboard Widget - Programming Language Pie Chart
• Second Dashboard Widget (Not Implemented)

2. Issues Arising

• LDAP Authentication? (5mins)
• Next widget proposal wireframes (5mins)

3. Proposed Sprint Plan (5mins)

Spare time: 5 mins.

Why do Review and Planning Meetings?

To review progress since the last meeting :

• Compare what has been done to what was agreed
• Report any additional work items completed
• Explain reasons for deviation

Discuss and elaborate key new requirements :

• New features that emerge from the review
• Obstacles that have been uncovered

Agree a plan for the next iteration:

• Have a proposal ready, but be prepared to negotiate
• New features and other enhancements
• Significant defects to be fixed