Managing Research Software Projects: Product Management

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  <p>Managing Research Software Projects</p>
  <h1>Product Management</h1>
  <p>
    <img src="../files/codebender.svg" alt="logo" width="20%" />
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## Product Management

- The product manager manages the feature list
  - What hurts to do?
  - What can't we do at all?
- Requires:
  - Discussions with users (including potential future users)
  - Observation (which often contradicts what they say)
- Produces:
  - A roadmap for the product's evolution

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## Complexity Budget

- Most features are never used by most people

```
NAME
     ls -- list directory contents

SYNOPSIS
     ls [-ABCFGHLOPRSTUW@abcdefghiklmnopqrstuwx1%] [file ...]
```

- So "improving" doesn't always mean "adding features" [<a href="../bibliography/#Perri2018">Perri2018</a>]
- "Two features forward, one feature back"

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## What's Wrong with Git?

- [<a href="../bibliography/#PerezDeRosso2013">PerezDeRosso2013</a>] found that even experienced Git users' mental models of it
  were significantly different from how it actually works
- So they designed a simpler interface
- But online documentation had too powerful gravitational pull [<a href="../bibliography/#PerezDeRosso2016">PerezDeRosso2016</a>]
- In practice, retiring features is nearly impossible
  - Python 3 is now 14 years old…

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## Starting Point

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## Taking Notes

- User: "I want to be able to add notes to my data"
- Product Manager:
  - "What kind of notes?"
  - "Are they shared with other people?"
  - "Can you search for notes?"
  - "Can you change them?"
  - "If so, can you look at old notes?"

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## Concept Map

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## Requirements Discovery

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## Requirements Discovery

- User: "I want to be able to add notes to my data"
- Product Manager:
  - "What kind of notes?"
  - <span style="background-color: yellow;">"Are they shared with other people?"</span>
  - "Can you search for notes?"
  - "Can you change them?"
  - "If so, can you look at old notes?"
- If they *aren't* shared, add data to `.dvc` file on user's computer
- If they *are* shared:
  - Add a file of notes in the cloud
  - Add a single line to the `.dvc` file pointing at the shared notes
  - Mumble mumble versioning

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## Division of Responsibilities

<div style="border: 1px solid black;">
  <ul>
    <li>If they <em>aren't</em> shared, add data to <code>.dvc</code> file on user's computer</li>
    <li>If they <em>are</em> shared:
      <ul>
	<li>Add a file of notes in the cloud</li>
	<li>Add a single line to the <code>.dvc</code> file pointing at the shared notes</li>
	<li>Mumble mumble versioning</li>
      </ul>
  </ul>
</div>

- *Not the product manager's responsibility*
- Developers are responsible for implementation
- But:
  - There has to be conversation to identify this as the key question
  - You are probably both the product manager and the architect

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## Comparing Mental Models

1. Draw a concept map for the thing you're working on.
   - Half a dozen concepts
   - Label the relationships
   - *Not* radial or hierarchical
2. Compare it with the concept maps drawn by your colleagues.
   - Where do they differ?
   - *Why* do they differ?