Business Value: Discovering what it is and what to do about it
The first principle of Agile is to deliver value to the customer. Understanding Business Value better can often do more than anything else to make your efforts better. We need to improve our Business Value Engineering.
In this Discovery Session, we intend to look at the principles and values that underlie Business Value and its uses. And we will look at how we practice Business Value Engineering throughout the life of the effort. Expect challenges, not pat answers. This discussion will enable you to improve your Business Value Engineering.
The Socratic method will be the main facilitation technique.
Description
Introductions and why you are interested in this topic
Basic organization of the workshop
What is Business Value
Why is Business Value important? Ideas and experiences.
What is Business Value? Break into small teams to discuss. Then each team shares.
Which definitions of business value align best with which people? (eg, with customers, with shareholders, with workers)
What do customers really want? What did you buy “today” and why?
Does the Business Value of a project ever change? Why? How do we discover that change? Ideas and experiences.
Tools used to identify Business Value. Brief discussion to identify and explain.
In a project, who should care about Business Value? And who is responsible?
Does Business Value seem easier or harder now?
2nd Section: What do we do about it?
• Cost-benefit analysis and decision-making. Are they key in the use of Business Value? Is the time value of satisfaction important?
• At what level do people need to agree on what Business Value means for their effort? (Team, Dept, Firm, Supply Chain)
• What should we do before we commission an IT project?
• What should we do once a project is commissioned (but before iterations start)? (when the Product Backlog is/ Stories are created)
• What should we do in the Iteration Planning Meeting?
• What should we do during an Iteration?
• What should we do at Iteration Review?
• What should we do at Release Time? What should we do at the end of an IT Project? What do we do some time after an IT project is over?
• Can we use Business Value across multiple projects? If so, how and when?
• If there is change and learning about Business Value, how is that best incorporated?
• Who will perform the practices you’ve proposed?