Value Driven Delivery Flashcards
What is “refactoring”?
To adjust working code to improve functionality and conservation
What are “story points”?
A unit of measurement to estimate the difficulty/complexity of a user story. Should be proportional to amount of effort required to deliver that user story.
When do you deliver value in an agile project?
EARLY! And often. Deliver highest value features first.
Why do projects exist?
To create business value
What is the project manager’s goal?
To increase value and reduce risk (anti-value) as early as possible
What is WIP?
Work in (progress, process, play)
It is risk (because it’s not yet creating value but requires investment).
It hides bottlenecks.
It needs to be limited.
What are some ways to determine value in Agile projects?
ROI = value - investment
Present value (calculation of a future amount in today’s terms)
NPV (net present value, present value of revenue stream over a series of time periods)
IRR (internal rate of return) - when do we break even and how night can we get beyond that (NPV of cost of project, and when NPV of benefit of project exceeds cost)
EVM (earned value management) - suite of formulas to show performance
What are the five rules of EVM?
Earned value management
1) earned value is first
2) variance means subtract
3) index means division
4) <1 index is bad (except TCPI, where it is easier)
5) negative variance is bad
What are the 14 tasks of Value Driven Delivery?
Plan work incrementally
Gain consensus on just-in-time acceptance criteria
Tune process to organization team and project
Release MVP
work in small batches
Review often
Prioritize work
Refactor code often
Optimize environmental & operational infrastructure
Review & checkpoint often
Balance value & risk
Reprioritize to maximize value
Prioritize nonfunctional requirements
Review and improve overall process and product
What are Poppendieck’s seven areas of waste?
1) partially done work
2) extra processes
3) extra features
4) waiting
5) motion
6) defects
7) task switching
Why do we deliver high value first?
Longer a project goes on, but the more opportunity for risk
We demonstrate an understanding of customer needs
Helps stakeholders maintain synergy and interest in project.
What is EVM?
Earned Value Management
A suite of formulas to show actual vs planned performance
When things don’t match up, you must calculate the variance
What is earned value?
EV = % complete * BAC (budget at completion)
What is cost variance?
Cost variance = EV - AC
EV (earned value)
AC - actual cost in $s spent
Why is it important to deliver value early in a project?
The longer a project lasts, the more opportunity for risk.
Demonstrates an understanding of customer needs, earning trust.
Helps keep stakeholders engaged and energized about the project.
What are the two performance indexes with EVM?
Cost performance index (CPI) & Schedule performance index (SPI).
You really want these to be close to 1.
<1 means you’re falling behind
>1 means your estimates were bloated
What is CPI formula?
CIP = earned value / actual cost
What is SPI formula?
SPI = earned value / planned value
What is BAC?
Budget at completion - total planned spend on the project
What is EAC?
Estimate at Completion
Based on current events, what do we think we will actually spend.
Several ways to calculate based on what is happening:
= BAC / CPI *use if CPI is likely to be the same for the rest of the project
= AC+BAC-EV *use if trends are likely to continue
= AC + ETC use if future work estimate is no longer valid
= AC + [(BAC-EV)/(CPISPI)] *use for weighted SPI or CPI values
What is ETC?
Estimate to Complete = EAC - AC
What amount of money do we need to complete the project (based on current events)?
What is VAC?
Variance at completion = BAC - EAC
Difference between what you planned to spend at what you are currently estimating to spend in total
What is TCPI?
To complete performance index - how likely are you to complete the project based on current circumstances
Two flavors:
Efficiency needed to meet BAC (original)
TCPI = (BAC - EV) / (BAC - AC)
Efficiency needed to meet EAC (current)
TCPI - (BAC - EV) / (EAC - AC)
> 1 means tougher
=1 means same level
<1 means easier
What values can be used in EVM calculations?
You can use $s or you can use Story Points (there are several ways to estimate story points)
What is ROI?
Return on Investment
ROI = Value - Investment
Higher ROI means more $ is coming in than is going out.
NOT the best approach to discovering business value of a project (no time variable)
What is Present Value?
Calculation of a future amount in today’s terms, given assumed interest rate and sometimes inflation rate. Single point in time.
What is NPV?
Present value of revenue stream over a series of time periods. (Extension of Present Value concept)
What is IRR
Internal Rate of Return
Calculates NPV of the cost of the project. When NPV of the cost of the project meets or exceeds the NPV of the benefit of the project. Higher the IRR, the more valuable the project is.
What is Agile Project Accounting?
Accountability of what was invested in relation to the value of the project/ROI.
Risk exposure, what was created … and what is the return on what was created.
What is KPI?
Key Performance Indicators - show how well the project is performing
Examples: rate of progress; remaining work; likely completion date; likely cost remaining (ETC = EAC - AC)
What is risk?
Risk is anti-value; anything that threatens the project’s goals
Risk must be managed
Identifying risk is an iterative activity
Risks are recording in a risk log
What do you do about high risk?
High areas of risk are addressed as early in the project as possible.
Features with high levels of risk are addressed in early iterations.
Create a risk-adjusted backlog to bring risk features to earlier iterations.
A risk burndown chart tracks risks as they move down in priority and elimination.
When is “just because” documentation required?
When it is a regulatory compliance issue
What are some key concepts of customer value prioritization?
Work on items that will yield highest value first
Product owner is responsible for keeping backlog prioritized according to customer value
When changes are added to the backlog, product owner reprioritizes the backlog
Customer defines what success looks like (“done”)
Team will discuss with the customer at the end of each iteration the priority of the remaining items
What is the most important concept of prioritization methodologies?
Everyone must agree on the methodology first.
Explain the prioritization method: ranking
Features are ranked in high, medium, and low priority. Not very granular, and you run the risk of everything being high priority.
Explain the prioritization method: MoSCoW
Organize features into MUST have, SHOULD have, Could have, and Would like to have (but maybe not right now)
Explain the prioritization method: play dollars/100-points/dot voting
Stakeholders get a set number of “monopoly money” voting “dots” or get 100 points, and they distribute based on what they see as the most important requirements.
Explain the prioritization method: Kano analysis
Features are plotted based on their satisfaction and functionality:
Delighters/exciters
Satisfiers
Dissatisfiers
Indifferent
Explain relative prioritization ranking
Priority of features, from most important to least important
Determination made to meet budget and schedule (you can only do so many user stories given time and budget)
Changes may change the priority list (may even bump some priorities off the list completely) - backlog grooming
What are the concepts of incremental delivery?
Team regularly deploys working increments, usually to a test environment for evaluation.
Opportunity for early return on investment.
Explain the concept of Minimum Viable Product?
Complete enough to be useful. Small enough it does not represent the entire project. Barebones essentials of a product.
What types of tooling is preferred in Agile projects?
Low tech, high touch tools preferred over sophisticated computerized models.
*Technical tools can exclude team members and/or stakeholders from interacting
Can consider high-tech tools for scheduling (if data accuracy perception increases).
A bad estimate is a bad estimate, regardless of tooling choice.
What are examples of low tech, high touch tools?
Cards/sticky notes
Whiteboard charts
Information radiator
Tools that promote communication and collaboration, learning and knowledge transfer.
Describe an information radiator
Shows information about the project.
Want it to be interactive
What is the difference between scheduling software and kanban board?
Kanban board (aka task board), helps monitor work in progress (WIP)
*Want WIP to be low
What are some concepts on limiting WIP?
Agile attempts to limit WIP
Kanban boards can have WIP limits.
Keeps team from taking on too much work.
WIP limits reveal bottlenecks.
