3 Ideas for more Business Value via Agile Teams

1. MORE BUSINESS VALUE NOW
!
“Transforming the World of Work”
!
© Joseph Little 2014
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2. Joe Little, CST & MBA
• Agile Coach & Trainer (CST)!
• 20+ years in senior level consulting to well-known firms in New York, London and
Charlotte, and elsewhere.!
• Focus on delivery of Business Value; interest in Lean !
• CST (CSP, CSPO, CSM); MBA!
• Was Senior Manager in Big 6 consulting!
• Head of Kitty Hawk Consulting, Inc. since 1991!
• Head of LeanAgileTraining.com!
• Started trying to do [Agile] before reading The Mythical Man-Month!
!
–
http://agileconsortium.blogspot.com
–
jhlittle@kittyhawkconsulting.com
© Joe Little 2014
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3. Basics
© Joseph Little 2014
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4. Test
There will be a test at the end.
!
!
Or: two questions that you each must answer.
© Joe Little 2014
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5. Key Issue
Having better lives (the good life - Cf Socrates)
!
!
Smaller version: Getting more from Scrum.
© Joe Little 2014
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6. Would it be good to have more
Business Value?
My opinion: Finding Business Value more
is our biggest problem. Getting more efficient
is secondary.
© Joe Little 2014
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7. What’s in it for you? (Scrum)
More business value for the firm
More for the customers
More, cheaper, faster, better
Faster delivery (TTM)
Better way to work (for the workers)
More fun
It just makes sense
© Joe Little 2014
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8. If you are a Team member...
If you deliver more real business value, your
life has a higher purpose....
!
You have done something for another person
(or persons). This is a wonderful thing.
© Joe Little 2014
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9. What is the problem?
We are not delivering enough Business Value.
!
Large success does happen often...why not
much more often??
!
And a larger success more often...
© Joe Little 2014
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10. Put another way
We need more...
Innovation
Inventiveness
Creativity
Beauty
WOW factor
Sex appeal
© Joe Little 2014
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11. Per Tom DeMarco
Project A will eventually cost about $1 million
and will produce value of about $1.1 million
!
Project B will eventually cost about $1 million
and will produce value of about $50 million.
!
!
What do we learn from this?
!
© Joe Little 2014
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12. Why is business value so hard?
A.
B.
C.
D.
E.
F.
G.
H.
I.
We don’t talk to the customer
We don’t understand the problem well enough
The customer can’t explain what they want
Communication is hard (all along the line)
Many people are involved
Change in every dimension
Rampant disruptions
It depends on benefits vs costs
It takes too much time to build the stuff
© Joe Little 2014
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13. What we do now in Scrum
© Joseph Little 2014
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14. What does Scrum do ‘out of the box’
to get more business value?
1. Business and Technology collaborate
2. We have a Product Owner for each Team
3. We have a ‘prioritized’ Product Backlog
4. Ordered mainly by Business Value
5. Each sprint we have working product (per the
DOD)
6. Each demo, we show the working product to
‘business stakeholders’ and get their feedback
As in: ‘Did we build the best possible stuff for you this
Sprint?’
7. We release earlier
© Joe Little 2014
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15. But we can do more...
© Joe Little 2014
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16. What else can we do?
In small teams, with stickies. And large pens.
One items per sticky...
!
What are some concrete things we could start
doing tomorrow that could raise BV?
!
You have 2 minutes. The Team with the most
stickies wins....
© Joe Little 2014
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17. 3 More Ideas
© Joseph Little 2014
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18. The 3 ideas to try
Priority Poker / CBA
!
Business Value Engineering
!
The Pareto Principle
© Joe Little 2014
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19. Priority Poker
Similar to Planning Poker, which you know and
love
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Puts BV Points on each #$%@ user story
!
Done with the Team (by the right people)
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‘It’s the conversations, stupid.’
!
Then add benefit-cost analysis (R Factor).
© Joe Little 2014
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20. Business Value Engineering
A framework for continuously improving how
you deliver more and more business value.
!
Steals from Value Stream Mapping (Lean)
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Steals from Deming (Plan-Do-Check-Act)
!
Uses ideas similar to the scientific method
© Joe Little 2014
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21. The Pareto Principle
We know this as the 80-20 rule...although not
well enough.
!
Vilfredo Pareto: The ‘vital few’
!
Sifting to separate...
The gold, platinum, diamonds
The silver and copper
The dirt (even the dirt gives a decent return)
© Joe Little 2014
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22. Ummm...
These 3 ideas could be done separately....
!
OR...
!
They could be done together...
© Joe Little 2014
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23. Priority Poker & CBA
© Joseph Little 2014
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24. What is it?
Priority Poker is very similar to Planning Poker,
except it is about Business Value.
!
Other differences:
The reference story is the highest BV card. (Not
the lowest effort story.)
We use the “5 best experts” on Business Value.
© Joseph Little 2014
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25. 3 roles
• Product owner
• Scrum master
• Team
!
Planning poker cards
3 artifacts
• Product backlog
• Sprint backlog
• Sprint burndown
!
4 activities
• Sprint planning
• Daily scrum
• Sprint review
• Retrospective
http://planningpoker.crisp.se
Source: Henrik Kniberg
CSM v9.3 © Jeff Sutherland 1993-2008; © Joe Little 2014
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26. What happens?
They select the reference story. BVP=100
They choose a story (random) to evaluate
They discuss
They vote. Imagine: 2, 20, 20, 20, 40
The two extremes talk
The vote again: 13, 20, 20, 20, 40. It is close
enough.
The average is 23. (Meaning: On average, they
feel it is about 23% of the BV of the reference
story)
They go to the next story
© Joseph Little 2014
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27. What is the higher purpose?
To put a number on each story card?
!
!
OR....
!
!
That the 5 ‘experts’ discussed some important
issues, and ‘everyone’ now understands BV
much better?
© Joseph Little 2014
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28. The goal is...
...that now everyone has shared their (key)
tacit knowledge about business value.
!
...that now everyone’s motivation is changed.
!
...that now mostly they see the same elephant
(of BV).
© Joseph Little 2014
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29. Daniel Pink: Drive
Autonomy
!
Mastery
!
Purpose
© Joseph Little 2014
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30. “If you have to be very careful if
you don’t know where you are
going, because you might not get
there.” Yogi Berra
© Joseph Little 2014
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31. Now...
R = BVP / SP for each story.
!
We can order the stories mainly by R Factor.
!
(Yes, we also must consider Risks,
Dependencies, Learning, MMFS, and other
factors.)
!
We can do more work on the Pareto Idea... (up
soon)
© Joseph Little 2014
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32. Very simple...
...very powerful.
© Joseph Little 2014
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33. A word of advice...
If the ‘wrong’ person explains Priority Poker,
they won’t do it
!
If the ‘right’ person explains it, they do it
easily and see the value
!
!
Hard to explain why...but that seems to be the
truth
© Joseph Little 2014
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34. Why Priority Poker & CBA
Simple
Easy to implement
Improves motivation
Shares tacit knowledge
Herds the cats (business stakeholders)
Enables benefit-cost analysis, which is
essential
© Joseph Little 2014
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35. Business Value Engineering
© Joseph Little 2014
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36. Business Value Engineering
A framework for continuously improving how
you deliver more and more business value.
!
Steals from Value Stream Mapping (Lean)
!
Steals from Deming (Plan-Do-Check-Act)
!
Uses ideas similar to the scientific method
© Joe Little 2014
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37. The two essential questions
How do we get the BV ideas and the
requirements into the Team?
!
How do we deliver the ‘product’ to the
customer?
© Joe Little 2014
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38. The BV process is visible and we
articulate the underlying
Do you understand yours, end-to-end?
Customers
External
!
!
&
!
!
!
Internal
The Business
Customer facing
people
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
The Team
Internal groups
(Firm oriented)
© Joe Little 2014
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39. Hallmarks of good BV Engineering
1. The process is visible and articulated & always
improving
2. Failures in BV communication are identified and
corrected frequently, quickly
3. There are many theories, and a concerted attempt
to prove out each theory
4. There is appropriate dynamism and change
5. Business & Technology are partners
6. Success is forecast (modeled) and also measured
after the fact
7. Human judgment is involved (the numbers are not
a dictator)
© Joe Little 2014
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40. Some good Theories (examples) - 1
The customer will change her mind 20% in 6
months.
The customer does not really know what he
wants.
The customer can explain clearly what she
wants.
The customer only knows it when he sees it.
The customer does not want software, just a
solution to her problem.
The Sales guys can explain some customer
wants.
© Joseph Little 2014
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41. Good Theories (examples) - 2
We can learn something about BV using better
metrics (maybe even money).
While we need some documentation, it is also
very important to give the Team the Tacit
knowledge.
The telephone game effect should be
minimized.
Let’s have real customers come to some
demos.
© Joseph Little 2014
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42. Good Theories (examples) - 3
Customers disagree. And customers and our
shareholders disagree on what is highest BV.
We are always separating the diamonds from
the dirt.
It helps for the Team to understand BV, even
the monetary return from the new product.
We expect to revise the NPV estimates over
time, for many reasons.
© Joseph Little 2014
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43. Good Theories (examples) - 4
It is helpful to identify different ‘roles’ for the
product.
We should optimize delivery ‘end-to-end’.
“End-to-end” starts when the customer has an
idea, and ends when the customer is
successfully using the product (achieving their
business value).
© Joseph Little 2014
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44. Good Theories (examples) - 5
There are important benefit-cost trade-offs in
our work. Only by having BusinessTechnology as partners, can we make the
better trade-offs.
Knowledge about these trade-offs evolves over
time.
Understanding knowledge creation and
knowledge decay are key to achieving ever
higher business value.
© Joseph Little 2014
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45. Good Theories (examples) - 6
Every customer has a high demand for
simplicity and speed of delivery. And high
quality.
...even if unstated.
Some projects will be cancelled if the benefitcost ratio declines enough.
Every representative of ‘the customers’ is
problematic to some degree. We are always
looking to reduce the bias.
Let’s let the coder talk to some of the end
users.
Testers must understand business value more.
© Joseph Little 2014
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46. Good Theories (examples) - 7
The business value of the (next) release can
often change significantly in a month or two.
(While we are building it.)
Often customers need our help in prioritizing
the “requirements” that the diverse people
from that firm have given us
The best possible feedback comes after it goes
into production. (release sooner)
By using working software, we will learn faster
how much we are misunderstanding what they
really want.
© Joseph Little 2014
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47. Good Theories (examples) - 8
Watching a person working if often the best
way to identify the real needs.
Use cases can be helpful in articulating the
requirements.
Showing some real users working software
frequently can be very useful for learning
about requirements.
The customer often does not understand his
problem, and is more often far from
articulating well the ‘better’ solution for it. (eg,
does not understand what is possible)
© Joseph Little 2014
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48. Good Theories (examples) - 9
Exogenous variables (war, weather, economic)
add more reasons to deliver something smaller
faster.
No one person at the customer firm ‘knows’
what the customer (firm) wants.
We need to re-train some customers to trust
us enough to want more frequent releases.
And give them the necessary support (eg, for
testing).
We must have higher quality so that customer
testing costs and ‘pain’ reaches an acceptably
lower level.
© Joseph Little 2014
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49. Some Outputs
A BV ‘process’ map (~30 objects/stickies)
A list of underlying theories (~20)
An ‘operational’ definition of BV for the next
release
A BV Model
A specific improvement to make (later:
approved & completed)
Something changes
A way(s) of measuring (higher) BV (eg, after
the release is in production)
A way of evaluating success (later: success
evaluated)
© Joseph Little 2014
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50. Why BV Engineering?
Comprehensive
Enables you to identify what to fix next
More long-term benefit
© Joseph Little 2014
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51. The Pareto Idea
© Joseph Little 2014
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52. The Pareto idea
80-20
!
The vital few
!
Less is more...
!
Example: The iPod, not the Zune
© Joseph Little 2014
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53. Pareto’s Rule (you must prioritize!)
Pareto Curve
100
80
60
40
20
0
1st Quint.
2nd Quint.
3rd Quint.
4th Qunit.
5th Quint.
© Joe Little 2014
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54. Why is this important?
Time is far more important to the customer
than we ever understand
!
Partially done work is terrible
!
They ‘say’ they want ‘everything’, but they
really want it ‘simple’.
© Joe Little 2014
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55. Pareto said...
You can re-apply the Pareto idea at every level
of the population
!
!
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THUS:
!
Every time you break down an Epic, part of it is
high value, part medium, part low
© Joe Little 2014
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56. Advice
Smaller stories!!!!!!
!
OK?...
!
Smaller stories!!!
© Joe Little 2014
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57. More importantly...
You have been brainwashed, for years, into the
100%-100% rule
!
And everyone around you has been
brainwashed
!
AND... we are still learning how to sift & see:
gold, platinum, diamonds
silver, copper
dirt
© Joe Little 2014
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58. Advice: Learn to say ‘NO’
...in a nice way
!
!
See: The Power of a Positive No, by William
Ury
© Joe Little 2014
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59. Advice: First do the 85%-50% rule
85% of $3 million is $2,550,000
!
50% of 12 months is 6 months....
!
!
THUS: a 70% improvement with just the 85-50
rule
© Joe Little 2014
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60. Advice: Work on it every day
Work on it HARD every day
!
Every day there is some additional work
(feature) you can identify NOT to do in the
Release.
!
Identifying that is hard.
!
Saying NO is hard; getting it to stick is hard.
© Joe Little 2014
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61. Why use the Pareto Principle
Conceptually easy (but in practice hard)
Avoids the Death March
The right thing to do
Time is soooo important
Minimize PDW / WIP
© Joe Little 2014
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62. Killing Babies or Sizzling Steak
© Joseph Little 2014
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63. You have finished Release Planning...
P.B.
By Apr 30th!
© Joe Little 2014
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64. You have finished Release Planning...
P.B.
NO !!!
By Apr 30th!
© Joe Little 2014
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65. You meet with the business
stakeholders immediately
“Killing my babies”
!
I don’t recommend it
© Joe Little 2014
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66. Show a Pareto Chart
R Factor
Bar Chart - Stories - Width is SPs
© Joe Little 2014
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67. You have finished Release Planning...
P.B.
By Apr 30th!
© Joe Little 2014
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68. Sizzling Steak!
Yes! We have to show the sizzling steak!
© Joe Little 2014
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69. You seduce them into the right thing
Better for them
!
Better for the customer and the firm
!
Better for the Team
!
Easier than ‘killing babies’
© Joe Little 2014
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70. Other basic ideas
© Joseph Little 2014
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71. Some simple things - 1
Benefit-cost analysis
Let the coder talk to the real user
Agile Specs
Ask the Doers to think about business value
frequently
Create a BV Model
Modify the BV Model once per month
Learn to cancel projects when better projects
come along
© Joe Little 2014
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72. Some simple things - 2
Identify & fix more technical debt
Make the PO better
Get more PO time for the team
Teach the PO about the product
Give the PO time to talk to end users and
customers
Let the PO watch a master PO
Improve the quality of the Agile Specs
© Joe Little 2014
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73. Some more simple things - 3
Get more creative
Make the product more elegant or beautiful
Get better business stakeholders
More feedback from the business stakeholders
More time from the business stakeholders
A better relationship between the business
stakeholders and the PO
Bring real end users to the Demo
© Joe Little 2014
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74. More simple things - 4
Map the stories (in several possible ways)
The Doers should watch what the end users do
(in a typical day)
Re-calculate the BV Model more frequently
Integrate more between Team planning and
firm planning
Study competitive products
Remove ‘bottom’ features from the release
(Pareto)
© Joe Little 2014
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75. More simple things - 5
Have more fun!?!
Ask: “What will delight the customer?”
Measure BV delivered (measure after a
release)
Focus on TTM (time to market). Measure it.
Identify the BV drivers specific to your effort
Clarify the acceptance criteria (functional
tests) more
Automate the functional tests (more)
© Joe Little 2014
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76. Summary
© Joseph Little 2014
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77. Try these!!!
Business value engineering
!
Priority Poker
!
Execute on the Pareto Principle
© Joe Little 2014
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78. If you do, you’ll have more fun!
!
Yes, even hard work can be fun, if
you do it the right way....
© Joe Little 2014
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79. Question 1.
Which one do you want to do first?
BV Engineering
Priority Poker
Pareto Rule
© Joe Little 2014
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80. Question 2.
Which will give you more long-term
benefit?
BV Engineering
Priority Poker
The Pareto Principle
© Joe Little 2014
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81. Thank you.
Please contact me here:
!
Joseph Little
jhlittle@kittyhawkconsulting.com
LeanAgileTraining.com
LeanAgileTraining.com/blog
Twitter: jhlittle
Office: 704-376-8881
Cell: 917-887-1669
© Joe Little 2014
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