Recursive Product Development - The Bamboo Approach

First, a personal note.  Today is my one year anniversary at Bamboo Solutions.  One year ago today, I was spending my first day on the job at SharePoint Conference '08 in Seattle.  This has been one of the most enjoyable years of my life professionally.  I am humbly grateful to my colleagues old and new for welcoming me into the Bamboo family.  It is a privilege to work with such a talented group of individuals.  Thank you team Bamboo.

This happy note does provide a reasonable segue to discussing Bamboo's unique software development methodology, "The Recursive Model". 

Regular readers will recall that before joining the team at Bamboo, I led a product development organization at AOL.  In that capacity,  I was part of the team that rolled out Scrum as the preferred development model.  I've described my experience in more detail in the recent post, SharePoint & Scrum.  For the purposes of this discussion, suffice to say that I am a passionate evangelist for agile processes.

In considering a position with Bamboo, one of the first things I asked about was the software development methodology being practiced here.   It was a litmus test question for me.  Frankly, if the answer was "traditional", "waterfall" or "design-led", it was the end of the conversation.

The answer was, "The Recursive Model".   Although I had never heard the term, I was assured it was an agile style.  The team went on to describe an incredibly aggressive schedule for product development.  On average, Bamboo was delivering two major new products per month, along with a steady stream of upgrades to a product portfolio that already included around 40 established products.  All this was being accomplished with a mere handful of product managers and even fewer project managers.  I was impressed and intrigued from the very beginning.

At my next earliest opportunity, I hit Google to read up on the Recursive Model.  Not a single hit.  It struck me as odd, but I was already sold on the velocity of product delivery.  Whatever the name, it was clearly working.

So what is The Recursive Model?  I think it can be summed up as simply as, "Deliver valuable functionality to market as quickly as possible.  Collect customer feedback continuously,  and provide a steady stream of iterative enhancements."   Yes, many agile approaches, including Scrum can be described this way.  What is unique about the Bamboo approach?  In my experience, just about everything.

It's useful to know a few more details about Bamboo as a company.  We are fortunate to have a large and very talented engineering organization.  There are well over 100 engineers in a company with fewer than 150 total employees.  Adding to the organizational complexity, the majority of our engineering team is based in our offices in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, 12 hours removed from headquarters and our product management leads.  The cynics among you will probably not be entirely wrong in thinking that the geographic and temporal separation of management and engineering is a natural path to success.  I used to write code, I totally get it.

Actually, I believe that the incredible efficiencies achieved by this team are primarily derived from the fact that we do everything in SharePoint.  All communication is conducted strictly via highly customized team sites.  Our rock solid foundation in a collaborative environment enables our product leads to effectively direct and mobilize many more resources than I have seen in any other organization.  To be fair, our product leads and engineering managers are exceptional individuals who work long hours.  But it works, and it's amazing to be a part of it.

Although I am not personally part of the product organization, I do have a remote team that provides new functionality for Bamboo's various Web sites.  It is always a delight to author functional requirements at the end of the business day, and find them executed to perfection by the time I arrive in the office the following day. 

So, if you are a Bamboo customer or business partner, what is the significance of The Recursive Model to you? 

• First and foremost, please realize that you are part of the process. We need your feedback and input on our products. We have the ability to incorporate your suggestions and feedback very quickly. We rely on an open and constant dialog with you. We strongly encourage you to participate in our product forums, test out new products in development in Bamboo Labs, and vote on new features in our online storefront. Listening is our religion.
• Our products are always evolving, always improving. There are two key takeaways here:
  • Please stay alert to new product developments. Subscribe to our RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, read our monthly eNews. We leverage a wide variety of channels to make this communication as convenient as possible to follow.
  • Buy the Premium Support Plan! With Premium Support you're entitled to major product upgrades as they become available. If you've purchased one of our Suites (e.g., Ultimate, Project Management, Administration), you'll even get NEW products as they are released. Premium Support is your subscription plan to the constant innovation at Bamboo. It's a great value, and we want you to get the most functionality for the money.
• Finally, you should know that Bamboo products are not perfect. This is by design. We are deeply committed to quality, and all Bamboo products go through a rigorous testing process before being offered to market. However, our first priority is to deliver the most valuable functionality as soon as possible. We favor functional over pretty. We care more about effectiveness than elegance. Over 4,500 customers have voted for this approach with their wallets. We know it works.

If you would like to know more about the Bamboo method, and they way we practice The Recursive Model, please check out Project Management Using SharePoint at Bamboo - A Case Study.  It's one of the most popular articles we've ever published, and provides a detailed look at a very healthy and successful methodology.