SAFe City Workshop: Portfolio & Program Prioritisation In Practice

[email protected] @MartinBurnsSCOwww.rallydev.com

[email protected] @MartinBurnsSCO

SAFe CityEconomic Prioritisation Workshop with WSJF

Martin Burns



Does it sound a little like this?

How Do You Prioritise?


Confidential Do not copy or distribute without express permission of Rally. ©2015 Rally Software Development Corp. All rights reserved.


How Do You Prioritise?

Voice of the HiPPOHighest Paid Person’s Opinion

MY thing is THE MOST

IMPORTANT

MY thing is A MUST DO

Photo: Wikipedia.org



Why do you Prioritise?

What outcomes are you aiming for?

Discuss in Pairs for 5 minutes

What Problem Are You Trying to Solve?



To achieve the BEST OUTCOME

from a CONSTRAINED

CAPACITY SYSTEM

Purpose of Prioritisation



1. While you may ignore economics, it won’t ignore you

2. Sequence Jobs for Maximum Benefit

3. If you only quantify one thing, quantify the Cost of Delay

Take an Economic View

Principles of Product Development Flow,Don Reinertsen

If you only have one takeaway from this workshop, let it be: READ THIS BOOK



To achieve the BEST ECONOMIC OUTCOME

from a CONSTRAINED

CAPACITY SYSTEM using JOB SEQUENCING

to MINIMISE COST OF DELAY

Don-Enhanced Purpose of Prioritisation



Cost of Delay: Single Big Batch –v- Incremental Small Batches

Time

Valu

e R

ealis

ed

Single Batch Delivery Incremental Delivery

Additional Value Realised by Incremental Delivery, AKA Cost of Delay of Single Batch Delivery

Category 10

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

Series 3

Series 3



http://vimeo.com/101506552

More on CoD…



Which order would you deliver these in to achieve best outcome (minimum Cost of Delay)?

Feature Duration ValueA 10 weeks $100B 10 weeks $1 000C 10 weeks $1 000 000

Priority Choice: Equal Duration




Feature Duration ValueA 1 week $10 000B 10 weeks $10 000C 100 weeks $10 000

Priority Choice: Equal Value




Feature Duration ValueA 1 week $5 000B 3 weeks $20 000C 8 weeks $30 000

Priority Choice: Mixed Value, Mixed Duration



Best economic outcome is achieved by sequencing jobs in order of descending WSJF, calculated as:

Estimate each factor in turn, using relative estimating in Story Point style:1. Find the smallest in the set of jobs for that factor, call it a 1.

2. Score all other jobs relative to that, using the standard Fibonacci-ish set

Note:The actual numbers do not mean anything in themselves, including the result. Only the resulting order.

More at: http://www.scaledagileframework.com/wsjf/

Weighted Shortest Job First

WSJF =Business

Value+

Time Sensitivity

Value+

Risk Reduction | Opportunity

Enablement Value

Duration (Proxied by Size)

http://www.scaledagileframework.com/wsjf/

http://www.scaledagileframework.com/wsjf/



WSJF Typical SubfactorsBusiness Value

(make, save, protect money)Timing Criticality Opportunity Enablement/

Risk Reduction

• Growth in revenue through more effective sales

• Upsell/Cross Sell• Cross business strategy• Process simplification

• Ease of registration• Profitable revenue growth

• Share of wallet• ARPU

• Cost savings• Unit cost• Cost to support• Cost to serve• Shift to low cost channels

• Customer satisfaction• NPS

• Growth of volume• User registrations• First time purchases

• Seasonality• Peak period sales• Seasonal features

• Dependencies• Technical• Co-ordination with offline

activities (marketing/ training)• System Driven

• Legacy system retirement• Investment priorities

• Financial (Q end) targets• Funding availability• Early benefits• Customer segment growth

• Competitive position• Barrier to entry of

competitors• First to market• Being behind market

• Acquisition integration• Customer Satisfaction

• Obvious pain points

• Brand Enhancement• Learning about our customers• Partner relationships• Simple Integration

• Future Flexibility• Speed to Market

• Customer retention• Reduced Churn Risk

• Ease of Use• Scalability• Single Platform for

customers• Error reduction in Content

Management• Fewer returns

• Market• Market Share• Entry to new markets• Ability to change market• Compelling offer to new

subsegment• Technical Risk

• Faster defect feedback loops



Simulation by Mark Richards

@markatscale

Download a copy fromhttp://bit.ly/SAFeCitySimulation

SAFe City Simulation

http://bit.ly/SAFeCitySimulation

http://bit.ly/SAFeCitySimulation



1. Prioritise for best organisational economic outcome in constrained systems (ie all software development).

2. WSJF is a quick, simple way to achieve a rational ranking.3. You will need some discussion about what high value in each factor

means to your organisation, and this will likely evolve.4. Scoring should be sensitive to organisational vision.5. WSJF is highly sensitive to size. Encouraging smaller/sliced quanta of

work is a very useful byproduct.6. You will still have some HiPPO negotiation, but the scope for conflict is

significantly reduced.

AND FINALLY…

7. Read Don Reinertsen’s book. At least twice.

Takeaways



Want to run this at your place?Get in [email protected]

@MartinBurnsSCOhttps://uk.linkedin.com/in/martinburnsuk

mailto:[email protected]



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