One of the key element of Agile Software Development is to emphasize delivering quickly business value over having a long-term rigid plan. In his book “Project Myopia”, Allan Kelly discusses the issue of identifying and delivering value.
Agile software development focuses on the small. Agile aims to deliver lots of small increments rapidly.
One of the key techniques of agile software development is that of breaking work down. This is a learnable skill. Again and again the agile solution to tackling a request is to break it down to smaller items. Teams initially build Minimally Viable Products and Walking Skeletons. Epic stories get broken down to smaller stories which are themselves get broken down to task.
To someone of an agile mind being told: “We need all or nothing, if we don’t have the whole thing…, everything on our list is a must” is like a red rag to a bull. Experience shows that almost everything is decomposable when looked at in the right way and with the right toolkit. The all or nothing cry is often made without anyone actually trying to decompose the work.
So, look again at the thing that we call “a project”. The aim of the project originators is to create value by delivering the project. Goal displacement occurs in the gap between value identification and delivery because the goals of each activity are not the same as the overall goal:
- Success in value identification means identifying and communicating potential business value, and then getting a delivery project launched.
- Success in delivery means satisfying the success troika of schedule, cost and quality.
Yet the overall goal is to deliver value to the business, customers and users.
The alternative is to bring these activities together in value seeking teams. Even when identification and delivery are separate, a value seeking team can deliver higher value by flexible and revalidating scope.
Viewed through the lens of the agile software movement: a project is actually a number of units of work which will hopefully deliver value. Some of these work units might deliver value sooner and some later. Some may require more work and some less. Some deliver lots of value and some less. Some are time dependent – and loose value quickly – others are not, the value they generate remains the same whenever delivered.
In other words: a project is a large batch of things – lets call them features – each of which should contribute towards value. Since the world is still in motion and technology is changing the value of each item, and even the cost of each item, is in a constant state of flux.
Viewing a project as a large batch of work items makes it easy to apply return on investment, cost of delay and cost-benefit analysis at the item level rather than the project level. The project delivers the first large batch of work, but requests keep on coming, some more valuable some less. Just because the value was not seen before a particular “sign-off” date does not make it worth less.
Source: Project Myopia, Allan Kelly, https://leanpub.com/myopia
The essence of agile software development is all about delivering business value continuously and incrementally. This promotes customer satisfaction as Agile prioritize delivering functional software in small, frequent releases. This means stakeholders get to see tangible results and provide feedback early and often, ensuring that the final product meets their needs and expectations. By focusing on delivering business value, agile software development ensures that every effort contributes to achieving the project’s goals and overall business objectives, making the process more efficient, effective, and ultimately successful.
Here is a list of articles about delivering value in Agile:
Agile Principles – Early Value Delivery
Delivering Value in Agile Cycles
How Agile Value Management Creates Value Faster
Measuring Integrated Progress on Agile Software Development Projects with Earned Value Management
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