Articles and Tools

Product Qualities Approach, Agile Style

Fri, 5 Feb 2010 21:30:20 -0500

UPDATE: You can now download the article here

My latest article came out this week on gantthead.com. The topic is Product Qualities, a concept from Evo that can apply to any agile development teams. Here’s the intro...

In many agile organizations, the product owner is responsible for setting the team’s priorities through the product backlog. Whether they want enhancements to in-house systems or shrink-wrapped products, product owners get input from customers and stakeholders to create product backlogs of prioritized features (or user stories). These backlogs contain functionality that can be estimated by developers and planned for releases.

While there’s nothing wrong with this approach of functions-first planning, I have come to believe it’s short-sighted in that it doesn’t place product qualities on equal pairing with functions. Currently in the agile community, there’s a tendency to focus too quickly on user-centric functionality instead of product qualities that can deliver real stakeholder value, often very quickly. Product owners who understand and leverage product qualities cannot only delight customers, but also help them achieve their organization’s business objectives.

This article provides a how-to for progressive change agents interested in delivering products that generate measurable business value for their customers and stakeholders. You’ll learn how product qualities differ from functions, how to identify the right ones, measure them and use improvements to drive business results. Along the way, I’ll demonstrate how to integrate an agile development processes such as Scrum.

Bolstering the Backlog

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 21:49:56 -0400

This column, published as part of my series for Gantthead.com in July 2009, provides specifics on how to integrate measurable value into Scrum processes. I propose a new artifact, a Results Backlog, to capture and manage the prioritized business results (aka objectives). I also discuss how to integrate gathering, managing and tracking the results into the Scrum process.

I’ve received some feedback on this article, some of which wasn’t sure the term ‘results backlog’ was a good analogy with the regular scrum backlogs (product and sprint). I’m not sure myself if results backlog is the best term, but it fits for now.

The idea for this article came from a conversation I had with Robin Dymond at a local coffee shop. We were discussing how agile teams measured value and that stories didn’t conform to value measurements easily. I mentioned something about a way to store, prioritize and manage measurable objectives in existing Scrum teams. I thought, “What’s in your backlog?” and the editor changed it to “Bolstering the Backlog”.

I’m open to those who want to try this approach. Please share what works (and doesn’t). I’m trying it myself on projects with mixed results. I plan to share these experiences in future posts or columns.

Value Thinking in Lean Times

Wed, 9 Sep 2009 21:34:04 -0400

This column, published as part of my series for Gantthead.com in March 2009, provides guidance for progressive IT Leaders seeking to get more with less during the economic downturn. The article presents four Value Delivery Policies for IT and five steps to get started to implement them. The policies:

1. Top Critical Objectives
2. Deliver Value Early and Often
3. Objectives Focused Contracting
4. Value-based ROI

Offer simple-yet-powerful concepts that can be used to deliver value.

Measurable Value with Agile

Tue, 8 Sep 2009 21:22:36 -0400

This article, published in ACCU Overload in Feb 2009, is my most comprehensive look at how to define and measure business value - from principles to practices. The goal is to demonstrate value delivery concepts while telling a story. Our non-profit organization is trying to act on the CEO’s strategic vision. Along the way they learn concepts for defining and measuring business value including how to integrate the new concepts with their existing Scrum process.

I have received positive feedback on this article. Dr. Bruce Scharlau is using this article and the companion presentation in his masters courses.

Value Decision Table for Measuring Business Value

Tue, 4 Aug 2009 17:18:05 -0400

Here is the example Value Decision Table I use in my Measurable Business Value talk. Feel free to download it and use on your project. Post feedback here or send me an email.

Note: I had been calling this an Impact Estimation Table (following Tom’s terminology), but a chat with Kai Gilb this summer convinced me to call these Value Decision tables, because their primary aim is to help you make decisions about business value. So same table, but a different name.