Over the summer I’ve been reposting some of the blog entries I wrote when I first started this blog 5 years ago. I’ve enjoyed revisiting my thoughts on key elements of how to be an effective Product Owner in an Agile software development environment; I’ve been in this role on our company’s flagship product for almost 6 years and both the product and my thinking have evolved over that time. It has been fun to see the ways I used Monty Python references in my early blogging and the below post – the last one in my first set of blog entries – continues that theme.

Starting later this month I will start posting new entries on this blog that reflect some of the current themes I am wrestling with about being a product leader. I intend along with these new pieces to continue revisiting some old writing I did and so I hope to post twice each week if my traveling schedule allows me to do so. Look for one new entry and one reblog every week if I can sustain that pace. Hope you will find these both entertaining and useful.

And now for something completely different…

Those of you who have been following this blog have had the chance to see many of my favorite scenes from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  Who knew that this movie had so much to say about software development using an Agile methodology or about the role of product owners?  This first arc of my blog has allowed me to share some important but disconnected thoughts about these topics and has (hopefully) been entertaining as well.  However, if I continue to link each new posting to a segment of this movie, I am afraid I will have to start paying royalties.

So as I begin the next set of postings, I will no longer anchor them to Monty Python sketches.  If I choose to write about nasty surprises that emerge after what you thought was a clean deployment you won’t find it linked to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy6uLfermPU.  Or if I write about the sometimes minor disagreements about exactly what new features were scoped into a release you won’t find me referencing this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lL9oA1LFoMw.  And should I choose to discuss the role of clever marketing in getting the word out about key enhancements I certainly won’t include a connection to this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iV2ViNJFZC8.  Such comedic skits might be helpful in getting a main idea across, but I also want to build a more coherent and connected picture of my ideas.

Given my deep enjoyment of pop culture generally and movies in particular I expect that my postings will continue to be interspersed with references to things I have watched, read, or heard over the years.  But for my next string of postings I want to talk more specifically about what I believe are the top ten things that good product owners need to focus on to be effective in their roles.  I plan to start this next arc of postings after sharing my thoughts on another blog I came across recently about great books.  Look for that posting in the next few days, and hopefully next week I will start on my top ten list (although they won’t actually be in order, because in truth it’s not that simple).