The biggest productivity benefit you get from Agile development is from not doing the work you would have before! Unfortunately, most organizations focus more on the team tactics associated with Agile and do not spend the time required to ensure the work going to those teams is setup to take advantage of those tactics.
The Standish Groups Chaos report claims that 64% of features are rarely to never used. Think about that, even if that data is double the actual, we are still taking 1/3 of your time in development is wasted. If you are looking for productivity gains, would you take a 33% increase in it!
Taking advantage of this gain starts from program definition and touches every step of our development process. Below are just a few examples of where you could begin to improve this start for your teams.
- Clearly articulate success. Defining the top 3-5 business objectives in a clear measurable way drives clarity for the purpose of an initiative.
- Decompose your business requests. There are multiple ways to do this, one way is to group your customers based on their needs and drive the plan to serve that particular group as a start. This helps you focus on a smaller set of features to go to market with.
- Incremental Architecture and Design. We geeks tend to develop solutions that will make life easier for us. How can I build this module once or if we are in that code, we should do all the things to it. While these are not necessarily bad ideas, they should not drive priority. This takes a very thoughtful approach and requires a balance to business priorities and solid software design principles.
- Get it into production. You learn more about the customers’ needs by having them use it vs you dreaming it up in a conference room. Get it out the door (Im still trying to learn this lesson with my own business so not saying it is easy!) and get their feedback. You cannot move forward without it.
Not sure where to start, give me a call and we will talk about how best to start getting you your 33-64% productivity gains!