What is the goal?
I seem to lead with that question a lot these days. Is the goal to practice Scrum? Is the goal to apply SAFe? Is the goal to use some other Agile delivery framework? Is the goal to uphold the values and principles of the Agile Manifesto?
They are all means to an end. Your goal depends on your organization. Fundamentally, every for-profit organization I've come in contact with has pretty much the same primary goal. Make money!
Before committing budget for that next project, let's first ask ourselves if we know our core business drivers.
Common Business Drivers
- Predictability
- Higher Quality
- Shorter time to market
- Lower Costs
But let's look at this again. What is the primary goal? Make money!
How do we achieve the goal?
- Through predictability, we get better at forecasting sales and delivery (lead times)
- Through higher quality, we lower costs of rework and increase customer satisfaction
- With shorter time to market, we can get an earlier ROI and increase cash flow
- With lower costs, we free up capital for other areas of our organization
Answer these questions:
- What is your primary organizational goal?
- What are your core business drivers, relative to your primary organizational goal?
- If you don't know the goal, how do you know where to spend your time or money?
- How do you know where to start?