Message from Your Chapter President - February 2022

thinker                                                      President's Message

Value should be the Top Priority

The practice of Agile delivery is becoming increasingly prevalent with the continued explosion of software solutions. Providing value to either the external customer or internal end user should be the top priority of any software solution development project or task. This is why value is on the top of the Agile Triangle. I will explain how important value is and what some of the natural biproducts are by focusing on value dellivery.
Even in the Agile Manifesto there are four items that are valued above the alternative items. Working in an agile environment, we are to value: individuals and interactions, working software, customer collaboration, and responding to change.

                                        thinker

When we value individuals and interactions, we show respect for their opinions and feedback about their interactions with the software. We also value their opinion about the process as they use the software solution. One of the natural biproducts of this value is high value customer collaboration. We also need to value the individuals on our development teams. These men and women are highly skilled and most have an insatiable desire to provide an error free, smooth process for the end user of the solution.

When we provide working software, we demonstrate that the end user is highly valued and is very important to get their feedback. If we provide software that is full of errors, we will get feedback like, “It is broken”, “It doesn’t work”; or if the software solution’s process is clunky, we will get feedback like, “I can’t work with this”, ”It is too difficult to complete my tasks”. With working software that has a smooth and intuitive workflow, we will get high value feedback in ways to improve the software solution. 

When we engage in customer collaboration, we show the customer that their time, money and work effort are valued and respected. We need to be able to prove to the customer that they are at the forefront while development of the software solution is being worked on. The customer is also able to provide valuable feedback about future improvements to the software solution. With higher value feedback from the customer, it naturally encourages change management. 

When we respond to change, we are acknowledging the change that might occur and may impact the customer’s process. When we value the customer’s process, we can naturally work on the change management necessary and provide work instructions and process mapping that demonstrates that the change is necessary and how it is valuable to the customer in the end. We need to remember that it is never good to change just for the sake of change, but need to change for process improvement, better information collection and management, or aligning with best practices. 

When we look at the Agile Triangle, we also see that there are constraints and quality are part of the triangle which includes the tried, and true Iron Triangle. When we focus on providing value, the other natural biproducts of quality and constraints are taken care of.

      Thank you

Diagram by Niladri Tah, May 23, 2017, YouTube

 

Reg Cracknell,
President