We talk a lot about “maximizing business value”. We ask business people and product managers to prioritise by estimating the business value of user stories. [...]]]>
Pascal will present a tryout of the “Agreeing on Business Value using Systems Thinking” session for XP Days Benelux at the Agile/XP Belgium usergroup meeting organised by Cap Gemini.

We talk a lot about “maximizing business value”. We ask business people and product managers to prioritise by estimating the business value of user stories. But what exactly do we mean by business value?

Over the past few years we’ve worked with many teams to define their “Business Value Model”, a clear definition of the value a project will bring to the organisation. The exercise hasn’t always been easy but it has always brought significant benefits:

• Measurable business value in units that impact the organization (such as revenue €€€, customer satisfaction, staff retention)
• Everybody involved was more motivated because there was a clear reason for the project and they finally understood what it was
• The whole team was aligned around one vision because we had clear criteria to define success
• We came up with more innovative solutions because everybody on the team, not only “the business” or “product managers/owners” could take product-related decisions based on the model
• We could deliver a lot faster than anybody expected because the Business Value Model allowed us to easily distinguish between value-adding and non-value-adding features
• We spent a lot less time writing and prioritising user stories because we were able to derive the user stories from the value definitions
• The Business Value Model guided us to explore new product ideas: the business value model was a hypothesis that we could test and refine each time we released or performed user testing.

In this interactive tutorial you’ll apply some Systems Thinking techniques, such as the Diagram of Effects and Intermediate Objectives Map) to define the business value model of an example project. We’ll show you the techniques we used and discuss how you can apply those techniques in you context so that you’ll be ready to start building a business value model with your team.

Agenda:

• 18:00 – 19:00 – Welcome with snacks and drinks
• 19:00 – 21:00 – Session

Address: Bessenveldstraat 19, B-1831 Diegem, Belgium

Register here for this free event.

The Emperor is parading in his new clothes! See him in all his glory! Which role will you [...]]]> Portia will co-present a new Agile Fairytale, “The Emperor’s New Clothes – Meaningful Interactions in Stressful situations” with Jenni Jepsen on 25-26 November at the XP Days Benelux 2010 conference in Heeze, near Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

The Emperor is parading in his new clothes! See him in all his glory! Which role will you play? The mischievous weaver who robs the kingdom and sells the Emperor his birthday suit? Or the obsequious minister who assures the Emperor his bottom doesn’t look big in it? Or the innocent child who tells it like it is? We all interact with different types of characters in our daily lives which may give rise to stressful situations.

Together we will learn how to communicate better with others, especially at times of stress, by transforming our behaviour from incongruence to congruence. We will learn to recognise incongruence by role-playing the 4 Coping Stances, based on the Satir Model, then learn how to transform our behaviour from one of incongruence to congruence (the fifth stance) by thinking about interactions in terms of Self, Other and Context.

We talk a lot about “maximizing business value”. We ask business people and product managers to prioritise by estimating the business value of user stories. [...]]]> Portia and Pascal will present “Agreeing on Business Value using Systems Thinking” at the XP Days Benelux 2010 conference on 25-26 November 2010 in Heeze, near Eindhoven, The Netherlands.

We talk a lot about “maximizing business value”. We ask business people and product managers to prioritise by estimating the business value of user stories. But what exactly do we mean by business value?

Over the past few years we’ve worked with many teams to define their “Business Value Model”, a clear definition of the value a project will bring to the organisation. The exercise hasn’t always been easy but it has always brought significant benefits:

• Measurable business value in units that impact the organisation (such as revenue €€€, customer satisfaction, staff retention)
• Everybody involved was more motivated because there was a clear reason for the project and they finally understood what it was
• The whole team was aligned around one vision because we had clear criteria to define success
• We came up with more innovative solutions because everybody on the team, not only the “business” or “product” managers/owners could take product-related decisions based on the model
• We could deliver a lot faster than anybody expected because the Business Value Model allowed us to easily distinguish between value-adding and non-value-adding features
• We spent a lot less time writing and prioritising user stories because we were able to derive the user stories from the value definitions
• The Business Value Model guided us to explore new product ideas: the business value model was a hypothesis that we could test and refine each time we released or performed user testing.

In this interactive tutorial you’ll apply some Systems Thinking techniques, such as the Diagram of Effects and Intermediate Objectives Map, to define the business value model of an example project. We’ll show you the techniques we used and discuss how you can apply those techniques in your context so that you’ll be ready to start building a business value model with your team.

The slides of the presentation and summaries of the systems thinking tools are available on this site.

Let us know if these tools gave you ideas to resolve some [...]]]> Portia and Pascal presented a tutorial on how to use the “Conflict Resolution Diagram” systems thinking tool at the Mini SPA conference in London on September 10th 2010.

The slides of the presentation and summaries of the systems thinking tools are available on this site.

Let us know if these tools gave you ideas to resolve some conflicts in your life.

The session will show how using business analysis and kanban techniques we can create a flow from business goals to implementable user stories with acceptance test, focus on [...]]]> Pascal will present “Lean out your product backlog with lean product development and business analysis techniques” at the Lean & Kanban Europe 2010 conference.

The session will show how using business analysis and kanban techniques we can create a flow from business goals to implementable user stories with acceptance test, focus on value-delivering capabilities and involve the whole team in product development.

Pour pouvoir aider les autres (et soi-même) avec du coaching il faut mettre en pratique quatre activités :