It is widely accepted that Agile delivery demonstrateably adds value to software teams and their ability to bring software to fruition. There is however a question around whether Agile can achieve its full potential in the face of cultural resistance within the wider enterprise. For some there is now the acceptance that IT has the potential to be more than a cost burden; it is actually an avenue to compete more effectively in the market. IT is a strategic tool where projects with quantified business value deliver everything from streamlined internal processes to new customers through social networking sites. The better able the enterprise is in harnassing IT the better it will prosper, however it is not easy and they achieve varying degrees of success.
Set against a wider context of the end-to-end business process, actually delivering some working code comes far downstream. What needs to happen first? First ideas need to emerge in the organisation, gain momentum, become scoped, costed and valued and then, if all goes well, the initiative results in working system.
Given the project delivers a working service, we would be interested in a retrospective aimed at measuring success. For instance, certain assumptions were made regarding how much value the project would bring and how much it would cost to bring to fruition. We want to know whether it was ultimately worth taking this project forward once it has had a chance to ‘bed down’ because that information is valuable. Ideally a cycle can be established where the assertions and outcomes of initiatives are tested so that they may inform future estimation activity resulting in the ‘go/no go’ decision that governs all intiatives becoming more accurate. In this scenario, the estimates of future projects (cost and value) are compared with the resulting outcomes ultimately leading to the enterprise fully directing the IT function and reaping maximum competitive advantage.
Tags: idea management, governance, PMO, Programme management, Project management, effort estimation, value analysis, agile evolution