Comments for Leaning Agile http://trondwingard.com Agile, Lean, Value-Based Software Development and Project Management Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:34:29 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 Comment on CFO’s Case for Frequent Releases – Part 1 by Peter Evans-Greenwood http://trondwingard.com/2010/03/cfo-frequent-releases-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-402 Peter Evans-Greenwood Wed, 01 Sep 2010 03:34:29 +0000 http://trondwingard.com/?p=47#comment-402 We can discuss potential NVP etc benefits in the context of any iterative and incremental method until the cows come home, but CFOs already get this. Just look at most non-IT projects run but the business (sales campaigns etc). There's also a number of incremental/iterative IT approaches which don't belong to the Agile/LEAN family. (Believe it or not, but RUP was conceived as incremental and iterative, it's just not practiced that way very often.) So two questions come to mind. 1. Does Agile/LEAN have any financial benefits which can't also be ascribed to *any* incremental/iterative method? (I.e. Is this a business case for going Agile? Or is it a business case for incremental/iterative delivery, and Agile is just an example of one possible way of doing this?) 2. Are you prepared to do benefits realisation? (And I don't mean "we delivered the software so the benefit must be there.") You need to be able to prove that you project is delivering value if you want to make claims like "we can drown the puppy when it's no longer of use" or "it generated 100k in value." Think sales campaign: we can ascribe sales to a campaign (offering via a channel) so we can determine stuff like ROI and identify the point when return dips below cost.You also need to factor in substitutions: generating 100k of sales on the new portal is nice, but but how many more sales is this than you would have received on the old portal? If there's no change then why did you bother with the investment? We can discuss potential NVP etc benefits in the context of any iterative and incremental method until the cows come home, but CFOs already get this. Just look at most non-IT projects run but the business (sales campaigns etc). There’s also a number of incremental/iterative IT approaches which don’t belong to the Agile/LEAN family. (Believe it or not, but RUP was conceived as incremental and iterative, it’s just not practiced that way very often.)

So two questions come to mind.

1. Does Agile/LEAN have any financial benefits which can’t also be ascribed to *any* incremental/iterative method? (I.e. Is this a business case for going Agile? Or is it a business case for incremental/iterative delivery, and Agile is just an example of one possible way of doing this?)

2. Are you prepared to do benefits realisation? (And I don’t mean “we delivered the software so the benefit must be there.”) You need to be able to prove that you project is delivering value if you want to make claims like “we can drown the puppy when it’s no longer of use” or “it generated 100k in value.” Think sales campaign: we can ascribe sales to a campaign (offering via a channel) so we can determine stuff like ROI and identify the point when return dips below cost.You also need to factor in substitutions: generating 100k of sales on the new portal is nice, but but how many more sales is this than you would have received on the old portal? If there’s no change then why did you bother with the investment?

]]> Comment on CFO’s Case for Frequent Releases – Part 1 by trond http://trondwingard.com/2010/03/cfo-frequent-releases-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-329 trond Sun, 22 Aug 2010 19:57:28 +0000 http://trondwingard.com/?p=47#comment-329 Thank you! Thank you!

]]> Comment on CFO’s Case for Frequent Releases – Part 1 by trond http://trondwingard.com/2010/03/cfo-frequent-releases-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-328 trond Sun, 22 Aug 2010 19:57:09 +0000 http://trondwingard.com/?p=47#comment-328 Vineet, Thank you, and my apologies for the slow response. Answer: Yes, I'll post it, thanks for nudging me! Vineet,
Thank you, and my apologies for the slow response. Answer: Yes, I’ll post it, thanks for nudging me!

]]> Comment on CFO’s Case for Frequent Releases – Part 1 by Fidela Cancino http://trondwingard.com/2010/03/cfo-frequent-releases-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-322 Fidela Cancino Sat, 21 Aug 2010 03:14:30 +0000 http://trondwingard.com/?p=47#comment-322 Excellent content. Thanks for posting. Excellent content. Thanks for posting.

]]> Comment on CFO’s Case for Frequent Releases – Part 1 by Vineet http://trondwingard.com/2010/03/cfo-frequent-releases-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-273 Vineet Mon, 09 Aug 2010 18:04:08 +0000 http://trondwingard.com/?p=47#comment-273 Great point well delivered. Can you please post the spreadsheet you have used for the calculations? Great point well delivered. Can you please post the spreadsheet you have used for the calculations?

]]> Comment on Leaving and Joining by Team Foundations « Leaning Agile http://trondwingard.com/2010/05/leaving-and-joining/comment-page-1/#comment-188 Team Foundations « Leaning Agile Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:26:27 +0000 http://trondwingard.com/?p=115#comment-188 [...] you may know, I left Steria and joined Statkraft June 1st this year. One of the things that I looked forward to in Statkraft, was the opportunity to [...] [...] you may know, I left Steria and joined Statkraft June 1st this year. One of the things that I looked forward to in Statkraft, was the opportunity to [...]

]]> Comment on The Product Backlog Hinders Value Creation – Part 1 by trond http://trondwingard.com/2010/06/pbl-hinders-value-creation-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-128 trond Tue, 22 Jun 2010 13:13:47 +0000 http://trondwingard.com/?p=121#comment-128 Andrej, thank you for commenting! It's not that I don't trust the Product Owner. It's the focus on <strong>means</strong> as the foundation for steering the project that I think is flawed. I think clarifying the stakeholders, their values, and what this means in terms of product goals, is a much better starting point if you want to create customer value. Basically, giving the Product Owner a better tool for steering the project than the Product Backlog is. Make value explicit! Andrej, thank you for commenting!
It’s not that I don’t trust the Product Owner. It’s the focus on means as the foundation for steering the project that I think is flawed. I think clarifying the stakeholders, their values, and what this means in terms of product goals, is a much better starting point if you want to create customer value. Basically, giving the Product Owner a better tool for steering the project than the Product Backlog is. Make value explicit!

]]> Comment on The Product Backlog Hinders Value Creation – Part 1 by Andrej http://trondwingard.com/2010/06/pbl-hinders-value-creation-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-127 Andrej Tue, 22 Jun 2010 12:30:01 +0000 http://trondwingard.com/?p=121#comment-127 Don't trust your Product Owner very much, do you? Why do you want to redo all the work the product owner did to create the Product Backlog? Why do you think the team should redo this work and again decide if all the user stories are relevant? Don’t trust your Product Owner very much, do you?

Why do you want to redo all the work the product owner did to create the Product Backlog? Why do you think the team should redo this work and again decide if all the user stories are relevant?

]]> Comment on The Product Backlog Hinders Value Creation – Part 1 by The Product Backlog Hinders Value Creation – Part 3 « Leaning Agile http://trondwingard.com/2010/06/pbl-hinders-value-creation-part-1/comment-page-1/#comment-125 The Product Backlog Hinders Value Creation – Part 3 « Leaning Agile Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:55:44 +0000 http://trondwingard.com/?p=121#comment-125 [...] part 1, I looked at three problems with the Product Backlog as a tool for creating value. In part 2, I [...] [...] part 1, I looked at three problems with the Product Backlog as a tool for creating value. In part 2, I [...]

]]> Comment on The Product Backlog Hinders Value Creation – Part 3 by The Product Backlog Hinders Value Creation – Part 2 « Leaning Agile http://trondwingard.com/2010/06/pbl-hinders-value-creation-part-3/comment-page-1/#comment-124 The Product Backlog Hinders Value Creation – Part 2 « Leaning Agile Tue, 22 Jun 2010 09:54:45 +0000 http://trondwingard.com/?p=154#comment-124 [...] this is all theory so far. In Part 3 I’ll show some examples of what stakeholder and product goals could look like. ← The [...] [...] this is all theory so far. In Part 3 I’ll show some examples of what stakeholder and product goals could look like. ← The [...]

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