Chief Product Owner : Emmanuel Dillard

After several years in the software publishing industry and large-scale delivery, Emmanuel Dillard became Chief Product Owner at Maarch. He tells us about his journey.

In 2019, Maarch moved its R&D to an agile methodology. I immediately embraced the approach and took on the role of “Chief Product Owner”

Emmanuel Dillard — Chief Product Owner

What is your background, and how did you become PO?

My name is Emmanuel Dillard, 55 years old, Chief Product Owner at Maarch since 2017.

Passionate about IT, with a master’s degree in business law under my belt, I had the opportunity to join the software publishing industry right after finishing my studies.

This first experience later became the common thread running through my career in new technologies. My path led me to work successively as a developer, then as a technical manager on emerging technologies (notably the Apple Newton), as a customer support manager for telecom operators (both startups and established players), and as a delivery manager for B2B software publishers.

I joined Maarch in 2017 as Head of Support and Maintenance. In 2019, Maarch moved its R&D to an agile methodology, supported by a specialized consultant. I immediately embraced the approach and took on the role of Chief Product Owner for the Courrier suite (Courrier, Parapheur, Capture).

What does your role as PO involve?

The PO acts as the intermediary between all product-related requests and the development team. There are many channels: clients, support, integrators, sales, marketing, not forgetting the developers themselves!

These requests need to be orchestrated into a coherent roadmap, which requires constant trade-offs: time constraints, relevance, feasibility, and cost.

I make sure that requests never compromise the product’s consistency or its fundamentals.

How do you work with your teams?

First of all, we don’t talk about “my teams,” but about autonomous teams that understand the stakes and align with the goals being pursued.

They operate on the principles of agility, and more specifically on the SCRUM method adapted to our needs. SCRUM is built around ceremonies that help structure and secure software production alongside testing.

For example, Maarch Courrier has 80% unit test coverage, run automatically with every merge. Functional tests are carried out by the team, then by all Maarch employees ahead of a major version release.

How many people are on the Courrier teams?

Today, that’s three back-end developers and one front-end developer. During this major version release period, the team is being reinforced for three months with two senior back-end and front-end developers, brought in from another product line.

To give you some numbers, Maarch Courrier represents:

• 20,129 commits
• 44 contributors since September 2009
• 609,451 lines of code, mostly in PHP

A new version has just been released?

Absolutely, version 2301 came out two weeks ago. It’s worth noting that Maarch Courrier has evolved significantly toward continuous integration, with monthly updates incorporating new features requested by our clients.

The new version is even more designed to support continuous integration.

A new product for 2023?

Yes, we’ve been working for 18 months on something new and truly innovative in our field. It’s a product being developed by a team of five developers, a PO (me), and a Product Manager.

In total, R&D at Maarch represents 16 people. But we’ll have the opportunity to talk about this again in 2023 when this new product is officially released.