When the phrase we focus on producing value for the customer is used, there is a concept missing. Most customers need or expect that value to arrive on-time and over-time. In other words receiving the value from the project all at once is actually rare and some times undesired.
A cute Einstein quote is when asked what is the purpose of time his response was "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." - Albert Einstein.
This may sound odd and even counter to good project management. So let's look at the picture below.
When we hear something like:
(story) points are used to measure speed...and this kills agile.
We need to understand that delivery of business value through business (or mission) capabilities at the planned time that capability is needed by the business to enable the production of that value, is critical to the success of the project.
If the customer can't know when the value is going to show up - for what ever reason - then the business processes that depend on that value won't earn their value at the planned time and the business strategy will not be met for the ROI. ROI is time phased on most balance sheets. The expecetd return for the invested budget is reported at least quarterly, since the planned expendature of funds is part of the business plan.
No matter what development process is used - agile or traditional - the customer can only absorb new capabilities at certain rates. As the picture shows there is incremental delivery of capabilities to the business. This picture is for an agile project - an ERP deployment - where installation and use of the capabilities impact other parts of the business - training, process changes, customer facing processes, back office processes.
Much like the big bang release of many systems, when everything gets released at once, the business may not be able to keep up. So planning the release of value to match the businesses ability to put that value to use is part of any credible project management process.
All Requirements need a home. This home is the needed capabilities for project success. These are always time phased in some way. Here's a software intensive program example. Knowing when each capability is needed, what requirements implement each capability, and when those capabilities are needed to accomplish the mission or provide the planned business value is core to the success of any project. Without this knowledge - which of course is probabilistic - the only measure of progress is the spending or money and the passage of time. This is the case no matter the domain or context in that domain. From the system below to the most straight forward software project - the customer gets to say what DONE looks like in Measures of Effectiveness. If you're not working toward delivering capabilties and the resulting business value, you're just labor and someone else is in charge of the project.
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All Value Production Is Time Phased
When the phrase we focus on producing value for the customer is used, there is a concept missing. Most customers need or expect that value to arrive on-time and over-time. In other words receiving the value from the project all at once is actually rare and some times undesired.
A cute Einstein quote is when asked what is the purpose of time his response was "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once." - Albert Einstein.
This may sound odd and even counter to good project management. So let's look at the picture below.
When we hear something like:
(story) points are used to measure speed...and this kills agile.
We need to understand that delivery of business value through business (or mission) capabilities at the planned time that capability is needed by the business to enable the production of that value, is critical to the success of the project.
If the customer can't know when the value is going to show up - for what ever reason - then the business processes that depend on that value won't earn their value at the planned time and the business strategy will not be met for the ROI. ROI is time phased on most balance sheets. The expecetd return for the invested budget is reported at least quarterly, since the planned expendature of funds is part of the business plan.
No matter what development process is used - agile or traditional - the customer can only absorb new capabilities at certain rates. As the picture shows there is incremental delivery of capabilities to the business. This picture is for an agile project - an ERP deployment - where installation and use of the capabilities impact other parts of the business - training, process changes, customer facing processes, back office processes.
Much like the big bang release of many systems, when everything gets released at once, the business may not be able to keep up. So planning the release of value to match the businesses ability to put that value to use is part of any credible project management process.
All Requirements need a home. This home is the needed capabilities for project success. These are always time phased in some way. Here's a software intensive program example. Knowing when each capability is needed, what requirements implement each capability, and when those capabilities are needed to accomplish the mission or provide the planned business value is core to the success of any project. Without this knowledge - which of course is probabilistic - the only measure of progress is the spending or money and the passage of time. This is the case no matter the domain or context in that domain. From the system below to the most straight forward software project - the customer gets to say what DONE looks like in Measures of Effectiveness. If you're not working toward delivering capabilties and the resulting business value, you're just labor and someone else is in charge of the project.