Feeding The Agile Beast

Feeding the Agile Beast
Using Capabilities Analysis to Prioritize based on Business Value, Risk and Ability to Execute

What’s up?
Massive Computing Power
Ubiquitous Network
Improved Development Methods
Service Oriented Architecture & SaaS

What’s up?
CombinedChanges
Value Creation
Effectiveness
We expect to realize dramatic results

But Businesses …Still Don’t Realize the Value
Half the projects delivered don’t meet stakeholder expectations (Standish)
CRM fails to deliver the expected ROI 75% of the time (CIO Magazine)
50% of ERP fail, 25% delivered reduced performance, 54% delivered take more than two years (Forrester Research)

Alistair Cockburn talked about this
Agile works-we know how to do small team development
But what if the team is building the wrong things or building to much

Building in the wrong order results in…
Increased Risk: Very expensive
Rework: Very expensive in cost $ and time
Delay: Very expensive in customer happiness, trust, and rev $
Missing Important Stuff: very expensive in customer happiness, opportunity cost
Redundant Effort: Expensive, difficult to maintain
Over-Engineering/Design (YAGNI): Expensive, slow
Lack of Testability: Expensive, quality

Part of the Answer
Allocate based on
Business Value
Risk
and, Ability to Execute
In a way that supports communicating the purpose of the work effectively through development
Why is this hard?

The How Trap

Do you see it?

Now you see it!

Process is not the right way to look at the problem
Process is “how”, it is the implementation of “what”
Process tends to be subjective, which is good at the right time
Process doesn’t promote innovation
Send a Fax

Easy, and very high impactIdentify the Capabilities
Seeing that faxing is not a requirement does three things
Transforms the conversation about the outcome
It provides a framework to talk about value, performance, and risk
The technique can be used to drive more detailed clarity
Create Quote
Create Quote
Create
Certificate
Draft
Quote
Receive
Request
Create
Certificate
Draft
Quote
Receive
Request
Comm.
Quote
Create
Agreement
Interface
Comm.
Quote
Create
Agreement
Send
Agreement
Send
Agreement

Easy, and very high impactPrioritize Capabilities
Should I invest in Create Quote?
Where should I focus to drive Business Value and Reduce Risk?
Business Capability Heat Map
Generate Leads
Create Quote
Create
Certificate
Draft
Quote
Receive
Request
KEY
Comm.
Quote
Create
Agreement
Send
Agreement
High Value
Medium Value
Low Value
Low Performing
Medium Performing
High Performing
High Risk
Moderate Risk
Low Risk

Business Value
Is it this capability directly aligned with delivering the product strategy?
Focusing Objectives
Blitz QFD
The Business Value Game
Real Options
Is this capability key to the companies brand?
Generate Leads

Risk
Is there technical risk associated with this capability (vendor stability, new technology)?
Is there a compliance requirement or other business risk associated with this capability?
Does changing this capability introduce a lot of dependent changes or risk?
Is there a high cost of delay or market risk with this capability ?
Generate Leads

Ability to Execute
Do we have the clarity on what we need to build?
Do we have the skills to build this available?
Generate Leads

Heat Map
Business Value Here
Risk Here

Summary
We have a way to discuss business value, performance, and risk
We can retain insight and decision information and set context for everyone
We can prioritize up and down and across all stakeholders
When the strategy changes, the model is low friction to update

Capability Analysis a proven method
Original work documenting a process and techniques …
10 years – over 300 applications - $200 million saved

Questions
Reach out to Dennis Stevens
http://www.dennisstevens.com
dennis@dennisstevens.com
We also offer
Enterprise Agile Coaching
Agile Project Management
Cost Cutting and Innovation

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Feeding The Agile Beast

by Dennis Stevens on Sep 02, 2009

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Feeding The Agile Beast — Presentation Transcript