This document discusses prioritizing projects using the Cost of Delay (COD) method and Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF). It provides examples of features with different durations and COD values to show how WSJF prioritization works. The document also lists factors to consider for COD, such as business value, timing criticality, risk reduction, and opportunity enablement. Overall, the document aims to explain how to use COD and WSJF to prioritize projects based on their value, risk, and time sensitivity.

1. Workshop
Cost of Delay In Action
Leonardo Bittencourt
linkedin.com/in/leonardokb
twitter.com/leokbittencourt

2. How do you prioritise?

3. HIPPO
LVD
LVD
Loudest Voice Dominates
HIPPO
Highest Paid Person Opinion

4. “If you only quantify one thing, quantify the cost of delay.” - Don Reinertsen

5. Cost of Delay
“Cost of Delay is calculated by assessing the impact of not having something when
you need it.
…
It is the opportunity cost between having the same thing now, or getting it later.”
- Josh Arnold

6. How would you prioritize?
Duration Cost of Delay (COD)
Feature A 1 $ 1,000
Feature B 10 $ 1,000
Feature C 100 $ 1,000
Duration Cost of Delay (COD)
Feature A 10 $ 100
Feature B 10 $ 1,000
Feature C 10 $ 10,000
Duration Cost of Delay (COD)
Feature A 1 $ 100
Feature B 10 $ 10
Feature C 100 $ 1

7. For those who like maths
Feature COD Size (Weeks)
A $10K/week 6
B $8K/week 3
C $20K/week 16
Order COD for Feature 1 COD for Feature 2 COD for Feature 3 Total COD
A,B,C $10K*6=$60K $8K*(6+3)=72K $20K*(6+3+16)=$500K $632K
B,A,C $8K*3=$24K $10K*(3+6)=$90K $20K*(3+6+16)=$500K $614K
C,A,B $20K*16=$320K $10K*(16+6)=$220K $8K*(16+6+3)=$200K $740K
WSJF
1.66
2.66
1.25
WSJF = CoD/Duration

8. “It is critical to remember that we block a resource whenever we
service a job. The benefit of giving immediate service to any job is its
cost-of-delay savings, and the cost is the amount of time we block the
resources. Both cost and benefit must enter into an economically
correct sequencing”
- Don Reinertsen
WSJF = COD/Duration
Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF)

9. Cost of Delay
Risk Reduction | Opportunity
Enablement
User-Business Value
Time Criticality
+
+

10. SAFe Cost of Delay Components
User|Business Value
Revenue Impact
Potential penalty or other negative impact?
They prefer this over that
Time Criticality
Is there a fixed deadline?
Will they wait for us or move to another solution?
What is the current effect on customer satisfaction?
Risk Reduction & Opportunity Enablement
Reduce the risk of this or future delivery?
Is there value in the information we will receive?
Enable new business opportunities?

11. Let’s build a city!
• You are a property development company, and have bought
up some farms a couple of hours commute away from the
nearest major city, bulldozed them and are planning to build
a satellite city.
• You will make money by building houses and shops and
selling them
• You have reasonable but not excessive cash reserves, so
generating cash flow will be a primary consideration
Source: www.agilenotanarchy.com/
• Your market research people have identified the first 8 major development
opportunities for the city and you have done enough research to have a view on
potential returns and effort involved
• These opportunities are “Epics” and your goal is to apply Weighted Shortest Job
First (WSJF) to prioritise them

12. Sample Epic
Source: www.agilenotanarchy.com/

13. Instructions
1. Begin by reviewing all Epics as a group.
2. Determine the relative Risk Reduction and Opportunity Enablement value
of each Epic using relative estimation (“1” is has the lowest indirect value
proposition)
3. Determine the relative Timing Criticality of each Epic using relative
estimation (“1” is the least time critical)
4. Determine the relative Business Value of each Epic using relative
estimation. (“1” is the lowest Business Value)
5. Finish your maths and line the cards up from highest to lowest WSJF
score.
Timebox: 45 minutes
Source: www.agilenotanarchy.com/

14. Feature x
Feature a Feature d
Feature n Feature c Feature b
Feature g
Feature s Feature i
Feature m Feature n Feature f
First arrange the cards by Oppty/Risk Value and assign values
Lowest
Highest
Roughly equal
1
2
3
5
8
13
… then shuffle and sort for Timing Value and assign values
… then shuffle and sort for Business Value and assign values
Source: www.agilenotanarchy.com/

15. Typical Sub-factors for CoD
- Growth in revenue through more
effective sales activities
- Supporting customers in their
‘grow’ lifecycle
- Upsell/cross sell
- Cross business strategy
- Process simplification
- Ease of onboarding new
customers
- Profitable revenue growth
- Volume/ARPU
- Cost savings
- Unit cost
- Cost to serve
- Cost to support
- Customer Satisfaction
- NPS
- Political
- Exec priorities
- System driven
- Legacy system retirement
- Investment priorities
- Financial targets
- Funding availability
- Early benefits
- Customer segment growth
- Competitive positioning
- Barrier to entry of
competitors
- First to market
- Being well behind market
- Acquisition integration
- Customer Satisfaction
- Conspicuous pain points
- Peak period sales
- Brand enhancement
- Learning about our customers
- Simple integration
- Future flexibility
- Speed to market
- Customer retention
- Retention through tighter
integration
- Reduced churn risk
- Ease of use
- Scalability
- Single platform for customers
- Safety
- Market
- Market share
- Entry to new markets
- Ability to change market
- Compelling offer to new sub-
segment
Business Value Timing Criticality
Opportunity Enablement|
Risk Reduction
Source: www.agilenotanarchy.com/

16. References
agilenotanarchy.com
blackswanfarming.com

17. Thank you!!!
Questions?
Leonardo Bittencourt
linkedin.com/in/leonardokb
twitter.com/leokbittencourt