Kharkiv PMDay 2019 Spring Content

1. Managing Project Portfolio
How to prioritize your Projects
Oded Tamir
Agile Lead Coach – Agilesparks
PST – Professional Scrum Trainer
SPC – SAFe Program Consultant
Oded@Agilesparks.com
1
March 2019

2. Projects are prioritized based on the HiPPO method:
The process relies more on
Intuition, individual thinking, politics, power
than on
Scientific objective process

3. 3 |
Oded Tamir
Lead Agile Coach in AgileSparks
PST – Professional Scrum Trainer
SPC – SAFe Program Consultant
Founder of the – “Israeli Scrum
Master Club”
https://www.facebook.com/groups/ILSMForum/

4. 4 |
Established 2008
Leading Agile Company in Israel
Offices in Israel, USA and India,

5. Begin with The End in Mind:
The Workshop Goals
1. Understanding the problems of project prioritization
2. Introducing the Cost Of Delay concept
3. Experience the WSJF process as a tool for project/feature
prioritization

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What Problem are we Trying to Solve?

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Demand is always higher than what we can deliver

8. 8
1/3 of the Features
are really good/Valuable for
the customers 1/3 of the Features are ok
but don’t add much value
1/3 of the features
MAKE Things Even worse
We have much more idea to implement than we can!!!
How confident can we be about implementing the right feature?
https://exp-platform.com/

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High organizational WIP – (Work In Progress)
Low impact due to
working on many
initiatives

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Missing a reliable process to decide
what is more important

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WSJF – Waited Shortest Job First

13. Introducing Cost of Delay (COD)
“If you only quantify one thing, quantify the cost of delay”
Don Reinertsen

14. What is Cost of Delay (COD)?
• “Cost of Delay is calculated by assessing the impact of not
having something when you need it.
As a typical example, this might be the cost incurred while
waiting to deliver a solution that improves efficiency. It is the
opportunity cost between having the same thing now, or getting
it later.”
- Josh Arnold
Source: Mark Richards, SAFe City Simulation version 2.0

15. WSJF - Waited Shortest Job First
❖ WSJF is a lean method for determining backlog prioritization (job
sequencing/scheduling) using the cost of delay and remaining
job size.
❖ WSJF ignores sunk costs, which is a key economic principle of lean.
❖ Big important items will need to be divided into smaller pretty
important items.

16. Value/COD Duration/size
Feature A 100$ 10 MD
Feature B 100$ 5 MD
Feature C 100$ 2 MD
Value/COD Duration/size
Feature A 1000$ 10 MD
Feature B 500$ 10 MD
Feature C 100$ 10 MD
Value/COD Duration/size
Feature A 1000$ 5 MD
Feature B 500$ 4 MD
Feature C 100$ 10 MD
How to prioritize the backlog?
WSJF =
COD/Duration
200
125
10

17. The SAFe Proxy for WSJF
Using Relative Estimation:
Business Value +
Timing Value +
Risk Reduction(RR) | Opportunity Enablement (OE) Value
Cost
Of
Delay =
Duration Size
=
Source: Mark Richards, SAFe City Simulation version 2.0
How valuable is it for
the business?
How critical is time?
Is there any risk
reduction?
Enabling new business
opportunities?

18. 18 |MoMA – Museum of Modern Art New York
Isek Kingelez – City Dreams
Let’s make it Practice - SAFe City

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The Business Objectives
❖ You are a property development company
❖ You have property 2 hours away from a major city
❖ You are planning to build a satellite city (SAFe City)
❖ You will make money by building houses and shops and selling them.
❖ Your goal is to build a thriving city, making money from people eager
to buy your developments
❖ You have reasonable but not excessive cash reserves, so generating
cash-flow will be a primary consideration
The Game is based on SAFe City by Mark Richards

20. Prioritize The Epics in the teams based on the WSJF
Enough theory …. Let’s practice!
20

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The Game is based on SAFe City by Mark Richards

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How to Work?
1. Begin by reviewing all Epics as a group.
2. Determine the relative Business Value of each Epic using relative
estimation. (“1” is the lowest Business Value)
3. Determine the relative Timing Criticality of each Epic using relative
estimation (“1” is the least time critical)
4. Determine the relative Risk Reduction and Opportunity Enablement
value of each Epic using relative estimation (“1” is has the lowest
indirect value proposition)
5. Finish your maths and line the cards up from highest to lowest
WSJF score.

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1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21
Use those value to define Relative Estimation

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Present your results

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• What did you learn new?
• What change?
• Where can you use it?
• What are your takeaways?
Summary

27. Thank You!
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Oded@Agilesparks.com