Execute project to deliver business value

Enablers

• Assess opportunities to deliver value incrementally. (ECO 2.1.1)
• Examine the business value throughout the project. (ECO 2.1.2)
• Support the team to subdivide tasks to find the minimum viable product. (ECO 2.1.3)
• Measure ongoing progress based on methodology. (ECO 2.6.4)
• Collect and analyze data to make informed project decisions. (ECO 2.9.4)

Deliverables, and Tools

Creating a Culture of Urgency

• Ingrain a sense of urgency in the project environment and culture.
• Establishing and cultivating the appropriate project urgency culture is an ongoing task.
• The project manager can lead the way by articulating the project's importance and vision.
• Everyone involved can commit to and be accountable for striving towards that vision.
• Bringing in the voice of the customer can express the desires and personalize the value.
• The project team can promote the culture in their daily actions, responsiveness, and attentiveness.

Examination of Business Value

Business value*: The net quantifiable benefit derived from a business endeavor. The benefit may be tangible, intangible, or both.

• Determining what is of value requires examination, evaluation, and confirmation.
• Throughout a project, a variety of means for determining what is of value can be used.
• The business value can be:
• Financial
• Improvements
• New customers
• First to market
• Social
• Technological

Product Roadmaps

Product roadmap: serves as a high level visual summary of the product or products of the project.

• The roadmap can vary in appearance and presentation.
• The objective is to display the strategy and direction of the product being built and value to be delivered over time.
• Roadmaps start with the overarching vision of the product and any known time constraints or milestones.
• Over time, the roadmap is progressively elaborated as more information is known, work is being completed or not completed, and vision is refined.
• Themes, which equate to goals, emerge to provide structure and associations.
• The product roadmap provides short-term and long-term visualization of the product.

Incremental Delivery

• Provides the means to deliver value sooner rather than later.
• Early and regular incremental releases lead to higher customer value and an increased market share.
• Enables the customers to receive parts or elements of the product prior to the full product delivery.
• Allows users and the business to not only consume the targeted value—even if only partially—but also to provide feedback to the project team.
• Feedback enables adjustments to the direction, priorities, and quality of the product.
• Conversation and alignment with stakeholders are required to finding suitable increments.
• Stakeholders receive a usable product with the expectations that additional features and revisions will come.

Minimum Viable Product

MVP: The smallest collection of features that can be included in a product for customers to consider it functional. In Lean methodologies, it can be referred to as “bare bones” or “no frills” functionality.

• An MVP allows all stakeholders to see and experience some form of project outcomes.
• A tangible output channels targeted conversations, which generates feedback and ideas.
• MVP provides inspiration to the team and ignites shorter- termed urgency and a sense of accomplishment.

Minimum Business Increment

MBI: The smallest amount of value that can be added to a product or service that benefits the business.

• MBI is more viable when an MVP might be disruptive to the users and business, especially when a basic preliminary product to gauge interest is not necessary.
• MBI works best when:
• The product and functions are understood.
• An incremental increase of value can be pinpointed.
• The delivery of some of that value benefits the business.
• Advantages of MBIs:
• Enables project team to deliver bits of value sooner.
• Helps your team validate whether or not the team has captured.
• Enables team to incrementally build on that success or pivot as needed.

Cycles and Timeboxes

• Project teams can set up release cycles and working time blocks.
• Timeboxes are typically in the form of weeks or days for urgency sake.
• Cycling the project through similar timeboxes provides progress measurements from one timebox to the next and over many timeboxes.
• Over time and repeated cycles, the team begins to gain more predictable measurements that can communicate expectations of cycle times, throughput, and velocity.

Guidelines to Measure Ongoing Progress

• Define value from the customer’s, business, and/or user’s perspective.
• Determine value expectations.
• Set targets and baselines based on expectations.
• Determine metrics that communicate progress towards those value expectations.
• Select one or more means of collecting metric data that is not too cumbersome or time consuming for the project team.
• Collect data at a regular interval.
• Present the data of the progress.
• Compare the progress with the baselines and expectations.
• Improve on success or correct areas where progress is not meeting expectations.