Business Value with Systems Thinking session presented at Agile2010 by Portia Tung and Pascal Van Cauwenberghe

1. Agreeing on Business Valuewith Systems Thinking Portia Tung Pascal Van Cauwenberghe

2. Introductions Agile Coach. Storyteller. Games Maker. Consultant. Project Manager. Games Maker. Consultant His Blog: blog.nayima.be Consultant-Coach and Chief Strategy Officer Her Blog: www.selfishprogramming.org NAYIMA (c) emergn and Nayima 2010 We make play work

4. Show how to do Business Analysis in an Agile way

5. Present a few techniques you can use right away

6. Experience the process of creating a Business Value Model

8. 1. Introduction to Customer Value Analysis™

9. The Problem We Face #!?!!#

10. Customer Value Analysis™

11. 2. Understanding Project Goals By building a Goal Table

12. What will we do? Set the context Identify the project sponsor Identify the project sponsor’s goals Quantify the project sponsor’s goals Identify the customer Identify the customer’s goals Quantify the customer’s goals

13. 1. Set the Context

14. Jack, Customer Operations Manager of The Mobile Phone Company: Customers can port their mobile phone number in or out. Porting in means a customer has a phone or buys one from us; we ensure that their existing mobile phone number is transferred to their account with us. Porting out means a customer leaves us for another provider and wants to transfer their number over. Customers don't have a good experience doing with porting their number. We know this because porting is the #2 cause of calls in our call center. [Shows spreadsheet with call reasons]. We also know that our Net Promoter Score (NPS, how likely are our customers to recommend us to their friends?) is low compared to our competitors. Also (and this is a big concern for me) our cost of operations is too high: all those calls to the call center cost us £X on average per call. I'm under pressure to lower this, to increase our profitability. We think that we can solve all of these problems by offering our services online to our customers.

15. Consultant: First we have to understand your goals. Then we need to determine how to test that the goals have been achieved, so that you will know that we've delivered what you need. We use something called a "Goal Table" to summarise the goals of the project.

16. Goal Table Stakeholder, n: Role, Team or Organisation involved or affected by the project Goal, n: What a stakeholder wants to achieve Capability, n: Something we need to achieve the goal. Necessary, but maybe not sufficient Test, n: A way to decide if a goal has been achieved Measure, n: A way to determine how close we are to a goal Risk, n: Negative consequences of achieving the goal

17. Stakeholder, n: Role, Team or Organisation involved or affected by the project Goal, n: What a stakeholder want to achieve Capability, n: Something we need to achieve the goal. Necessary, but maybe not sufficient Test, n: A way to decide if a goal has been achieved Measure, n: A way to determine how close we are to a goal Risk, n: Negative consequences of achieving the goal

18. Identify key stakeholders and their goals Project Sponsor Customer(s)

19. Goal Table Let’s agree on the goals first and worry about the means later

20. 2. Identify the project sponsor

21. Project Sponsor Sets the goals Specifies deadlines and constraints Pays for the project

22. Identify Stakeholders

23. Jack: That makes me the project sponsor. As Customer Ops Manager. Consultant: We’ll start by adding you to the stakeholder list, as you'll be the most important stakeholder during the whole process. We'll also add the customer to the list, as we need to ensure that their goals are met. Jack: Of course. We should always focus on the customers’ needs.

24. Identify Stakeholders

25. Customer, n : Those who buy, install and/or use the product or service produced by the project Project Sponsor, n: Sets the goals, deadlines and constraints of the project. Pays for the project. Project Customer, n: Represents the project sponsor. Works closely with the project team. Implements the goals of the Project Sponsor

26. 3. Identify the project sponsor’s goals For the project

27. Identify Goals

28. Consultant: We'll fill in the goals in no particular order and prioritise them later. The first goal you mentioned was "Customer experience". The second was how likely customers are to recommend you, the Net Promoter Score. We'll add them to the list. Project Sponsor: Yes, because when customers recommend us our revenue increases. Consultant: Let’s add increasing revenue as a goal to the Goal Table.

29. Identify Goals

30. Agree on the definition of goals by specifying tests and measures

31. Consultant: Can you explain what you understand by “good customer experience"? Project Sponsor: Good customer experience means that the customer can do what they set out to do, simply, efficiently and without surprises. Consultant: How can we measure improvement in customer experience? Project Sponsor: That's simple: we know how many complaints there are related to porting today. If the number of complaints goes down we can conclude it’s because customers are happier. Consultant: I'll add "Number of complaints" to the way we measure that the goal has been attained. We can take the numbers from your spreadsheet with call reasons. What would it take to make this project a success? Project Sponsor: We've set ourselves a goal of reducing the number of calls by 50% within one year. It's an ambitious goal, but if we all work together I'm confident we'll get there. Consultant: Okay, we’ll add that goal to the tests and measures.

32. Specify Tests and Measures

33. Measure, n: How to get the numbers to verify that a goal has been met. For example: Number of complaints as reported in monthly call summary report => A number Test, n: How to verify that a goal has been met. For example: Number of complaints as reported in monthly call summary report reduced by 50%, relative to situation on DD/MM/YYYY => Yes/No Target, n: Specifies by when to achieve a goal For example: By next year, number of complaints as reported in monthly call summary report reduced by 50%, relative to situation on DD/MM/YYYY => Achieved/Not Achieved

34. Consultant: One way to reduce the number of calls would be to have fewer customers. Project Sponsor: That’s not funny. We mustn't do anything that drives people away! Consultant: I'll add "Retain customers" to the list of goals. It may seem obvious, but it’s important to make the goals crystal clear. Going back to the Net Promoter score. How can we measure this and what do you want to achieve by increasing it? Project Sponsor: We get quarterly NPS ratings. At the moment they're around 8%. I'd have to look up the exact number. Our competitors are typically above 10%. To achieve our revenue targets we need to get this number up to 15%.

35. Consultant: You mentioned you're under pressure to reduce cost. Will you tell me more about that? Project Sponsor: Our cost of operations is vital to our profitability. If we reduce complaints, I expect our cost to go down, but I want to look into other ways we can reduce our costs. Reducing call center cost is one of my major objectives this year. Consultant: How would you measure that cost? Project Sponsor: Well, we can count the number of people working there. That's our biggest cost factor. We can look at the monthly OPEX report to get the full cost.

36. Identify More Goals andMore Measures

37. Consultant: [Summarises contents of the Goal Table]Did I understand your goals correctly? Project Sponsor: Yes, but there’s more. We're under pressure from the regulators. It’s come to the attention of the regulators that the porting process is too slow and fails frequently. Consultant: If I understand correctly, you need to reduce the cycle time to port a number. Is that correct? Project Sponsor: Yes. Now it can take as long as two days. To keep the regulators off our backs we need to bring this down to one day. And fast. Customer expectation is two hours, as that's what's being offered by most of our competitors. We expect the regulators to make this mandatory in the near feature, so we need to be ready to port numbers more quickly.

38. Consultant: How many complaints do you get about the speed of porting numbers? Project Sponsor: It’s the second-largest reason for number porting complaints. We think that by offering this service as online self-service option we will speed things up a lot AND we'll be able to save on call centre costs. Consultant: I see. We already have the decreased cycle time and cost reduction goals in the goal table. What else would the online self-service option provide? How does the customer benefit? Project Sponsor: Well, the customer would benefit greatly from having those services available to use when and where they choose. It's much more convenient than calling our call centre. And our brand would benefit: we're in the communications and internet sector; we need to be seen to embrace the latest communication channels and technology.

39. Find the goals behind solutions requested by the stakeholders What benefits will the solution bring to the customer, the CFO and the CEO?

40. Goals Identified So Far

41. 4. Quantify the project sponsor’s goals with tests and measures

42. Goals Identified So Far

43. Quantified Goals

44. Use question marks to indicate missing information Identify the stakeholders who have the information Gather the missing information

45. 5. Identify the customer(s) Who uses the services and products we deliver?

46. Consultant: Who are the users of these services? Project Sponsor: They’re our customers. Or to be more exact, there are two types of customers: Existing customers who leave us and want to port their number out. New customers who want to port their number in.

47. 6. Identify the customer’s goals Just like we did with the project sponsor

48. Consultant: What do these customers want? Project Sponsor: They want to port their number, obviously. Consultant: What’s the benefit of porting for the customer? Project Sponsor: They can keep their existing number. That means their contacts can keep calling them without having to update the number. These contacts shouldn’t notice that the customer has changed provider.

49. Goals of the Customer

50. 7. Quantify the customer’s goals Just like we did with the project sponsor

51. Quantified Customer goals

52. Now we’ve got an initial Goal Table... We have what we need to create our initial Business Value model

53. What have we done? Set the context Identify the project sponsor Identify the project sponsor’s goals Quantify the project sponsor’s goals Identify the customer(s) Identify the customer’s goals Quantify the customer’s goals

54. Exercise 1 Build a Business Value Model

55. Building a Business Value Model Work in groups per table Use Post-Its to make model easy to change When you have a question or an issue Write it on a red Post-It Continue working Resolve issues and questions when we come round to your table

56. Building a Business Value Model Choose a small (4-6) number of measures Balanced: financial, people, organisation Identify relationships Build a model that you can use to: Determine successful outcome Steer the project Add more measures if needed

57. Generic example A B C D Organisation People Financial

58. For example Unit Test coverage # of Issues found by customer Customer Satisfaction Velocity Project Cost Unit Test Quality Financial People Organisation

59. Building a Business Value Model Choose a small (4-6) number of measures Balanced: financial, people, organisation Identify relationships Build a model that you can use to: Determine successful outcome Steer the project Add more measures if needed Time’s up! 6 min

60. Present your model A few examples of Business Value Models

61. Exercise 2 Improve your Business Value Model

62. Improving a Business Value Model One person per table goes to the next table To bring fresh perspective and ideas Ensure we have indicators to Determine successful outcome (late, lagging) Steer the project (early, leading) Identify constraints, things we can’t change Regulations, goals of other projects, company values How do you measure them? Add constraints them to the model How are they related to the goals?

63. For example Lagging Leading/Lagging Leading Unit Test coverage # of Issues found by customer Customer Satisfaction Velocity Project Cost Unit Test Quality

64. For example Lagging Leading/Lagging Leading Must integrate with System XYZ Speed of Service Unit Test coverage # of Issues found by customer Customer Satisfaction Velocity Project Cost Unit Test Quality

65. Improving a Business Value Model One person per table goes to the next table To bring fresh perspective and ideas Ensure we have indicators to Determine successful outcome (late, lagging) Steer the project (early, leading) Identify constraints, things we can’t change Regulations, goals of other projects, company values How do you measure them? Add constraints them to the model How are they related to the goals? Time’s up! 6 min

66. Present your model A few examples of Business Value Models

67. Exercise 3 More stakeholders and goals

68. More stakeholders Who else is involved to provide porting in/out service to customers? What are their goals? How do we know we’ve achieved them? How does that impact our Business Value Model? Time’s up! 6 min

69. Customer Value Analysis™ in practice

70. The Logical Thinking Process

71. The Logical Thinking Process Intermediate Objectives Map Prerequisite/ Transition Tree How do we get there? In small steps. What is our goal? What are we missing? Future Reality Tree Current Reality Tree Would that work? What could possibly go wrong? Why don’t we have what we need? Conflict Resolution Diagram What could be done to resolve the underlying fundamental conflict?

72. Using the Logical Thinking Process Intermediate Objectives Map Current Reality Tree Conflict Resolution Diagram Future Reality Tree Prerequisite/ Transition Tree Context Diagram Business Value Model Plan

73. Writing stories made easy Goal AS A... TO ACHIEVE... I NEED... GOTCHAS Stakeholder Capability Test and measure Risk I KNOW I GOT IT WHEN... TO ACHIEVE ... AS A ... I NEED ... PASSES IT’S DONE WHEN ... TO NOT ACHIEVE ... I NEED ... Another capability

74. User Story Carpaccio Goal Table Project Level Story Project Level Story Project Level Story Project Level Story Release Level Story Release Level Story Release Level Story Release Level Story Iteration Level Story Iteration Level Story Iteration Level Story Iteration Level Story Iteration Level Story Iteration Level Story Iteration Level Story Iteration Level Story

75. Kanban board TODO BUSY RFT DONE Iteration Release Project

76. Work in Progress limits TODO BUSY RFT DONE Iteration Release Project

77. Yeah-but, no-but, yeah-but!

78. Objections to Customer Value Analysis™ “We’ve spent 6 months on analysis already” “Business Value is impossible to measure” “All stakeholders must be identified upfront” “It’s too structured” “This is waterfall analysis, it’s not agile” “This is too hard” “Doing this with the whole team is a waste of time”

79. Why we do Customer Value Analysis™

80. The Startup Bank Situation It’s December 1999 “It has to be in java” (why?) We have to build an online bank The launch press conference is booked for end of February 2000 We have 2 developers Outcome We launched on time Full-featured frontend Combination of manual and automated processes One country at first, then expanded to Europe All manual processes were automated gradually as customer base grew

81. A Commercial Bank Situation Mythical belief in the value of the project Project attempted 3 times previously Estimated development cost continued to go up during analysis Unclear project goals Competing stakeholders Outcome Determined the validity of the existing business case of the project Reduced the scope by 40% making it eligible for the existing program

82. The Phone Company Situation Already spent 2 months on analysis Identified 60 features “We need web-based self-service” Reluctantly agreed to do a few days of Customer Value Analysis™ Outcome Only 10 out of those 60 features delivered value Identified 4 new features crucial to the success of the project 25% of the value could be delivered within one month; no need for a web application

83. Benefits of Customer Value Analysis™ Objection : “We’ve spent 6 months on analysis already” Answer: “Given a project costing $1,000,000 a few days invested in Customer Value Analysis™ is a worthwhile investment” Benefit: Reduced scope, clear and common goals, earlier delivery more than paid back the investment

84. Benefits of Customer Value Analysis™ Objection : “Business Value is impossible to measure” Answer: “If it’s important, we’ll find a way to measure it. If it’s not important, why are we doing this?” Benefit: We talk about value before cost; we have unambiguous goals and we see we’re getting closer

85. Benefits of Customer Value Analysis™ Objection : “All stakeholders must be identified upfront” Answer: “Correct. By starting with the goals of the sponsor and the customer(s), we’ll discover everyone who needs to be involved” Benefit: We don’t “forget” stakeholders.

86. Benefits of Customer Value Analysis™ Objection : “It’s too structured” Answer: “Structure liberates rather than constrains creativity. The techniques provide all the right questions. The answers are still up to you.” Benefit: Provided guidance and visibility into the analysis work. We don’t have to remember too much, the models show us what we don’t know yet.

87. Benefits of Customer Value Analysis™ Objection : “This is waterfall analysis, it’s not agile” Answer: “We’ve found that this work reduces implementation time significantly and ensures that we identify what we really need” Benefit: A day of analysis can cut weeks of implementation time. No more “It’s what I asked for”. Instead “Great! This is exactly what we need.”

88. Benefits of Customer Value Analysis™ Objection : “This is too hard” Answer: “Let’s try it on (part of) one project, you’ll be surprised how much we’ll get done in a few days” Benefit: The small steps make analysis work accessible to everyone involved in the project, so we can use the intelligence of the whole team

89. Benefits of Customer Value Analysis™ Objection : “Doing this with the whole team is a waste of time” Answer: “We all have to understand the goal. The fastest way to do this is by building the model together” Benefit: The whole team knows why they’re doing the project; developers and testers come up with unexpected product ideas

90. A Business Value Model is a Hypothesis The Business Value Model is one of many models we build. None of them are perfect. Our model is a hypothesis, what we think will happen. We re-evaluate and improve the model regularly based on feedback It’s not a static business case. We won’t be punished if we get it wrong.

91. Summary We build a Goal Table to understand who needs what and why they need it We build a Business Value Model to come to agreement on our definition of value We use the Business Value Model to prioritise the goals to be achieved We use the Business Value Model to know where we are, see whether we’re going in the right direction and know when we’ve arrived

93. Show how to do Business Analysis in an Agile way

94. Present a few techniques you can use right away

95. Experience the process of creating a Business Value Model

97. The Agile Extension to the BABOK Business Analysis Body of Knowledge International Institute of Business Analysts Methodology-neutral The Agile extension gives guidance on how to perform business analysis on Agile projects Open Space workshop: Thu 10:30

98. Introductions For courses and workshops on Customer Value Analysis™ www.emergn.com www.nayima.be NAYIMA We make play work