Agile Feature

What is a Feature

According to Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) — “A Feature is a service that fulfills a stakeholder need”.

Example -

●For a new Website (Theme/Initiative), a safe login to website to the landing page could be a Feature. This feature can be rolled out to Friends & Family as “Coming Soon” and customers’ ability to see some static pages, setup login and provide general feedback on look & Feel and probably gather feedback on functionality that customer is looking for to help Product Owners prioritize upcoming features.

Characteristics of a Feature

●A Feature must have DoD/DoR and Acceptance Criteria or “What and Why” descriptions

●A Feature must adhere to Feature Prioritization process

Feature Characteristics

Feature Kanban Flow

A Feature must have a defined life cycle so the product team can track the progress of a Feature. This also helps Teams limit the WIP of Features in queue.

Example of Feature Life Cycle

Prioritization of Feature

A Feature must go through prioritization and adhere to WIP limit defined by the team before progressing to next stage in Feature Life Cycle. There are multiple ways to prioritize a feature. Below are some common ones. Click here to learn more methods.

1.WSJF — Weighted Shortest Job First is used to produce maximum economic benefit. Click here to learn more.

2.MoSCoW Method- Acronym for Must-have, Should-have, Could-have, and Won’t-have is a robust way of prioritization. Click here to learn more.

3.Cost of Delay- helps prioritize by quantifying the economic value of completing the feature sooner than later. Click here to learn more.

Feature Refinement

Why

●Helps engage right parties based on the vision and scope.

●Provides everyone engaged the common vision, mission and the end goal.

●Helps define the release to market plan.

What

●Define the vision and roadmap for the Feature.

●Discuss the impacts for other teams.

●Refine the Feature into Epics and user stories keeping the end goal focused using Feature roadmap.

How

●Feature should be refined with the team to start breaking it into right Epics (lower level chunks).

●Architects can do better impact analysis at Feature level to engage right teams.

●Feature should be part of refinement for each PI readiness.

References-

https://insideproduct.co/feature-refinement/

https://www.scaledagileframework.com/program-and-solution-backlogs/

https://www.scaledagileframework.com/features-and-capabilities/

https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/product-backlog-refinement-explained-13?gclid=CjwKCAiA7IGcBhA8EiwAFfUDsdroceo_Gg2WRZrGxRU3WScrt5Ar-OQU8qVHtLayi5dM0kymGTQluRoCpWMQAvD_BwE

https://ancaonuta.medium.com/how-to-define-features-in-agile-methodology-2bd5039c67ff

https://theproductmanager.com/topics/feature-prioritization/#:~:text=In%20product%20management%2C%20feature%20prioritization,an%20effective%20roadmap%20for%20stakeholders.