Author: Elizabeth Larson

Elizabeth Larson, has been the CEO for Watermark Learning as well as a consultant and advisor for Educate 360. She has over 35 years of experience in project management and business analysis. Elizabeth has co-authored five books and chapters published in four additional books, as well as articles that appear regularly in BA Times and Project Times. Elizabeth was a lead author/expert reviewer on all editions of the BABOK® Guide, as well as the several of the PMI standards. Elizabeth enjoys traveling, hiking, reading, and spending time with her 6 grandsons and 1 granddaughter.

5 Competencies that help Business Analysts Connect the Dot

Written by Elizabeth Larson on March 28, 2017. Posted in Articles.

What do detectives, entrepreneurs/innovators, doctors, lawyers, and effective business analysts all have in common?

Among other things, they all have to connect the dots¹ to be successful. Like detectives sorting through objects at the scene of the crime, or doctors sorting through sometimes disjointed information provided by patients, business analysts need to sort through information—lots and lots of information—in order to identify problems and uncover requirements of the solution. This process requires the ability to connect the dots.

And although the phrase “connecting the dots” has been around for a long time, it has crept into our popular culture, thanks in part to Steve Jobs. He talked about it in August 2011 when he described what connecting the dots meant to him. He said, “You cannot connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that somehow the dots will connect in your future.” ²

Well, that sounds good. But what does it actually mean? How do we go about connecting the dots? Here are some prerequisites:

Experience. We cannot look backwards if we don’t have the background or experience to make sense of the new information we’re taking in. That does not mean we need to have specific industry or project experience. But it does mean that we need to have learned from similar situations. We need to apply appropriate business analysis skills to new situations, guided by what worked and what did not work in the past.
Understanding context. We need to understand the context of the current situation. “Context” is one of the core business analysis concepts in the BABOK® Guide 3.0, an important concept indeed. Understanding the context provides important information about such things as the culture of the organization and the stakeholders, values and beliefs of the organization and the stakeholders, processes followed, conditions that affect the situation like weather (think shoe prints in the snow, or clues washed away in the rain), terminology, and technology—just about anything that can affect identifying the problem and the creation of the solution.
Ability to recognize patterns. Recognizing patterns requires an ability to take in information from a variety of different sources, to synthesize lots of disparate information and make sense of it, to rearrange it, to understand what is important, to stay focused, and not get distracted by the irrelevant. The ability to recognize patterns is what allows us to understand which “clues” are relevant, because we’ve seen them, just in different situations. It’s about the ability to see a problem and say with confidence: his particular solution will work (and this one won’t and here’s why).
Using both the rational mind and intuition. BAs need to use both their rational minds and their intuition.³Several years ago there was a heated discussion on a social media group about which would serve the BA better—being “analytical” or being “intuitive.” Most discussion participants saw it as an either/or. Effective BAs were either more logical or more intuitive.
We do need to be analytical. We need to break down information into smaller pieces and determine which pieces are needed. We need to use our analysis to uncover the root causes of a problem which helps separate facts from hearsay, gossip, and opinion. But we also need to use our intuition if we have any hope of being able to think critically and conceptually, as well as to be able to synthesize a lot of information quickly and be able t make sense of it.⁴
Ability to thrive in ambiguous situations. We often hear about the need for BAs to tolerate ambiguity. I think that effective detectives and business analysts are those who not only tolerate but actually thrive in ambiguous situations. The ability to thrive in uncertain situations allows business analysts to create structure from chaos. When business analysts can synthesize all the information they have accumulated during elicitation activities, put it together in meaningful ways, and are able to create understanding and gain consensus—that’s a true thing of beauty.

Having these competencies does not necessarily mean a BA will be successful. But these skills are necessary to connect the dots and connecting the dots is necessary if we BAs are going to do our jobs of finding problems and recommending solutions that provide value to stakeholders (BABOK® Guide v.3).

About The Authors

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CSM, PMI-PBA is Co-Principal and CEO of Watermark Learning and has over 30 years of experience in project management and business analysis. Elizabeth’s speaking history includes repeat presentations for national and international conferences on five continents.

Elizabeth has co-authored five books on business analysis and certification preparation. She has also co-authored chapters published in four separate books. Elizabeth was a lead author on several standards including the PMBOK® Guide, BABOK® Guide, and PMI’s Business Analysis for Practitioners – A Practice Guide.

Richard Larson, PMP, CBAP, PMI-PBA, President and Founder of Watermark Learning, is a successful entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in business analysis, project management, training, and consulting. He has presented workshops and seminars on business analysis and project management topics to over 10,000 participants on five different continents.

Rich loves to combine industry best practices with a practical approach and has contributed to those practices through numerous speaking sessions around the world. He has also worked on the BA Body of Knowledge versions 1.6-3.0, the PMI BA Practice Guide, and the PM Body of Knowledge, 4th edition. He and his wife Elizabeth Larson have co-authored five books on business analysis and certification preparation.

References
1 “To draw a conclusion from disparate facts.” http://www.dictionary.com/browse/connect-the-dots?s=t
Originally a form or puzzle involving drawing lines between numbers to form a picture, as in “To draw connecting lines between a seemingly random arrangement of numbered dots so as to produce a picture or design.” http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sr07uR75Qk0 4:41 minutes in

3 The term “intuition” has a variety of meanings and is used differently in different contexts. Although there are different nuances, the term basically is “There are a variety of definitions of intuition. This is from http://www.dictionary.com/browse/intuition?s=t “direct perception of truth, fact, etc. independent of any reasoning process; immediate apprehension; a keen and quick insight.”

4 Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action from The Critical Thinking Community, http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766
Conceptual thinking “…make sense of large amounts of detailed and potentially disparate information.” Conceptual thinking is applied “to find ways to understand how that information fits into a larger picture and what details are important, and to connect seemingly abstract information..” BABOK® Guide 3.0, 9.1.6.

5 Trends in Business Analysis, Project Management, and Agile for 2017

Written by Elizabeth Larson on January 19, 2017. Posted in Articles.

Since 2009 we have enjoyed reflecting on what’s happened the previous year on projects and making predictions for the upcoming year. To summarize the `trends” we saw in 2016:

Emergence of the Business Relationship Manager (BRM) to maximize value
Agile successes, challenges, and use beyond software
Trends in business analysis and project management certifications
Implications of a changing workforce

Here are five industry trends we see happening for 2017. We’ve added two brief bonus trends at the end of the article.

1. Business analysis as a focal point for scaling Agile

Many organizations are delighted with the results produced on Agile projects, but are struggling with its application on large, complex projects, as well as its adoption enterprise-wide. Many of the discussions focus on which Agile framework works best for scaling Agile. Some of the common frameworks often discussed are scrum of scrums, Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), Large Scale Scrum (LeSS), and Nexus.

Large, complex projects. While there is a great deal of contention about which framework is “best,” there seems to be an agreement that there is a need for coordination, integration, and communication among Agile teams related to the solution being developed. Regardless of the title of the person doing this work, it is business analysis work. And it’s work that has always been needed on large, integrated projects—the coordination of dependencies, security, business and technical impacts, and version control.
Enterprise-wide Agile. Many large organizations have adopted Agile in a hodgepodge of ways, and these different areas have become quite fond of doing Agile “their” way. Adopting Agile across the enterprise will require skills of people not only familiar with Agile, but also with understanding the Agile current state and working with stakeholders to reach consensus on a unified future Agile state. This will involve being able to influence, resolve conflict, and to think both creatively and critically—skills well suited to experienced BAs.

2. Digital Transformation: Profound Change for Business Analysis…or is it?

The “digital transformation” movement means we must change the way we handle business analysis and requirements. Or does it? Consider two trends commonly mentioned today.

Cloud Computing. Security is a bigger concern when storing data in the cloud than if it is on-site under “lock and key.” Considerations for recovering data must be employed over and above normal backup and restore. Access rights are also more complicated than with traditional applications.
Mobile apps. Mobile applications provide data for sensitive banking, investment, or insurance applications. Security is a bigger concern on mobile devices given they are, well, mobile. It is much easier for a thief to access a bank account from a mobile device than a desktop. Modern apps need to have “mobile responsive” features and usability.

What we conclude is that these two technical trends will continue to affect business analysis. The trend, though, is not so much with functional requirements as it is with non-functional requirements (NFRs). The two examples above feature important NFRs including security, accessibility, recoverability, and usability, including user experience. NFRs are traditional aspects of business analysis, and any profound effect on it is that we will need to pay even greater attention to them with digital transformation.

3. Freelance BAs and PMs in the Gig Economy

Currently 40% of the US workforce is part of the Gig or on-demand economy¹ and that number is growing. Intuit breaks this on-demand economy into 5 groups.² We describe these groups below and briefly discuss how they apply to the project manager (PM) and business analyst (BA). Here are the 5 groups:

Side Giggers (26%). These are PMs and BAs who want to supplement their existing income. Examples include PMs and BAs who take vacation, days without pay, or who work off-hours to do training classes or short-term consulting gigs.
Business builders (22%). BAs and PMs who are tired of working for others and want to be their own bosses fall into this category. Many of these will create their own companies and hire others. We can expect these companies to be based on the owners’ experience in project management and business analysis. Examples include consulting and training companies.
Career freelancers (20%). These PMs and BAs love their work, love working independently, and want to use their skills to build their careers, not to build a company that hires others. These folks usually establish themselves as independent contractors with their small own company, usually an LLC.
Substituters (18%). PMs and BAs who want to work in the gig economy temporarily. Whether laid off from their former organizations or for other reasons they view “gig” work as temporary while they look for full-time employment.
Passionistas (14%). PMs and BAs who love what they do and are primarily motivated by their desire for greater flexibility than is usually provided by a more traditional organization.

4. The shifting sands of the BA and PM roles

Many project professionals find their roles changing so rapidly that it feels like the earth is shifting below their feet. Roles are being combined (BA and PM or BA and QA) or being torn apart (formerly hybrid PM/BAs are now full-time PMs or BAs). In some organizations BAs thrive on Agile projects working hand-in-hand with product owners (POs), while in others become part of the development team doing testing because there are no BAs,. PMs become scrum masters as do BAs. Sometimes the BA becomes a product owner, but one without the authority to make decisions.

In addition, both BAs and PMs are working strategically, doing business cases and recommending enterprise-wide solutions. And more and more organizations recognize the importance of the business relationship manager (BRM), to maximize value and help set the strategic agenda.

So what is the trend? For the foreseeable future, roles and titles will vary widely from organization to organization. Equally certain is that both project management and business analysis work, both strategic and tactical, have always been required and will always be needed, regardless of the role or the title or the role.

5. Generalists helping teams to self-organize

If descriptions of job openings are an indication, specialization seems to have wide appeal. But breadth of capabilities will continue to provide the flexibility that organizations need to respond to the hyper pace of change. BAs who code. Engineers who do project management. It’s the number of arrows in the team members’ quivers that defines an organization’s competitiveness – and contributes to the team’s ability to self-organize. Not only do organizations need self-organizing teams, but the teams themselves also need the flexibility to pick up tasks that are ready to go, so the more diverse the team members’ skills, the more work can be done in parallel and completed sooner.

Although varied work appeals to many younger workers, this isn’t just about attracting millennial talent. Self-organizing teams provide the structure organizations need in order to react quickly. Self-organizing teams and the ability of team members to wear multiple hats and get things done as they see fit will continue to become the best way for organizations to respond to external influences. The self-organizing team is not a new thing, but it is going to increasingly become the norm.

Two bonus trends

Short business cases and quick value. The trend is to provide business cases on slices of the initiative, slices that can bring quick value to the organization, rather than spending weeks or months detailing out costs and benefits and a return on investment showing a multi-year payback.
Dev Ops³ This trend relates to the first and fourth trends, scaling Agile and the shifting project roles. BAs and PMs now find themselves participating as DevOps Engineers on Agile teams that emphasize collaboration not just between the customer and development team, but also among such areas as development, operations, security, infrastructure, integration, etc.

Footnotes:
1 Forbes, January, 2016
2 Intuit Investor Relations, February 3, 2016, http://investors.intuit.com/press-releases/press-release-details/2016/The-Five-Faces-of-the-On-Demand-Economy/default.aspx
3 Dev Ops is “a cross-disciplinary community of practice dedicated to the study of building, evolving and operating rapidly-changing resilient systems at scale.” https://theagileadmin.com/what-is-devops/. Ernest Mueller, Aug 2, 2010 – Last Revised Dec 7, 2016. He attributes this definition to Jez Humble.

About the Authors

About the Authors

Andrea Brockmeier, PMP, CSM, PMI-ACP, is the Director of Project Management at Watermark Learning. She has 20+ years of experience in project management and related practice and training. She writes and teaches courses in project management, business analysis, and influencing skills. She has long been involved with the PMI® chapter in Minnesota where she is a member of the certification team. She has a master’s degree in cultural anthropology and is particularly interested in the cultural aspects of team development, as well as the impact of social media and new technologies on organizations and projects.

From the Archives: Influencing the Project Manager

Written by Elizabeth Larson on August 25, 2016. Posted in Articles.

Much has been written about how business analysts can effectively influence subject matter experts, sponsors, vendors, and so forth.

I thought it might be interesting to relate how a BA influenced me when I was a project manager I had started a job as a project manager in an organization in which the project managers, almost all of whom rose through the technical ranks, were expected to gather (yes, gather, not elicit) requirements. There was no formal definition of requirements, let alone any pretense at doing business analysis. Project managers all had their own way of documenting requirements, most of which was brief and folded into the design specification. Each project manager was expected to meet with SMEs, but not spend too much time. They weren’t productive, of course, unless they were working on “the important stuff.” I was lucky. When I started at this company, I was “given” the organization’s first BA as an experiment to determine if this new position of business analyst added value to the project and to the organizations.

I choose the word “given” carefully. The powers that be said something to the effect of “Starting on Monday, Kristin (not her real name) will join your team. Let’s see what she can do for you. Good luck.” I’m not sure what they were expecting. It turned out, however, that Kristin was a gift, indeed. She had many talents, one of which was to subtly but effectively give me work direction and she quickly became my trusted advisor. Here are just a few examples.

A new team member, Joanne, showed up unannounced and unexpected one day to work on our project. The project was undefined and the only thing we knew about it was its name and the name of our sponsor. Well, here came Joanne out of nowhere, asking where she should sit and what she should start working on. She said that she had seen a yellow sticky on her phone directing her to join our team (this is not just urban legend. It really did happen). I was at a complete loss. I was about to ask her to wait until we had more definition of our project, but Kristin gently urged me to find a spot for Joanne, and suggested that she start analyzing the current documents and interfaces. This work was important would keep her productive while we tried to get the project more structured.

Another instance occurred at a cross-functional requirements meeting. Several SMEs were unhappy about the direction of the project. Conflict arose between two business areas, both of which were vital to the success of the project. I was about to make a decision in favor of the area funding the project when Kristin suggested that perhaps I should meet with the sponsor, which I did. Such advice, while in all honesty was not completely welcome at the time, turned out to be well-advised. It didn’t take me long to realize that she was absolutely right. The decision was not mine to make.

Yet another time I was ready to recommend a change in project scope. One of the business SMEs requested an enhancement, insisting that he could not use the system unless this enhancement was added to the project. Kristin researched alternatives and suggested that the request had some pretty significant business and technical impacts. She recommended that the request be its own separate project. She convinced me that trying to add it to the current project, even if the sponsor authorized it, would not only cause the baselined scope, time and budget to change dramatically (my main concern), but more importantly that the request didn’t align with the business problem or project objectives we had defined. She explained this to the requester, who withdrew the request. I updated the project sponsor with the good news.

One last example; It was Kristin who taught me the importance of defining the business problem. I had always documented the project solution without much thought given to what problem it was solving. However, one time a sponsor wanted “just a little enhancement” on a project. After Kristin convinced me of the benefit of defining the problem, we realized that the enhancement would not solve the problem. Kristin was able to convince me and I was able to convince the sponsor that to solve the problem the current system needed to be scrapped and replaced.

These are just a few examples. It seems that she constantly persuaded me to take some kind of action. Her suggestions were always based on her experience and research, as well as her good analytical and critical thinking skills. I quickly came to trust her suggestions. Although I didn’t always want to listen to her advice, I almost always did and almost always with a good outcome.

This article was originally published December 22, 2009

Don’t forget to leave your comments below

Elizabeth Larson, PMP, CBAP, CEO and Co-Principal of Watermark Learning (www.watermarklearning.com) has over 25 years of experience in business, project management, requirements analysis, business analysis and leadership. She has presented workshops, seminars, and presentations since 1996 to thousands of participants on three different continents. Elizabeth’s speaking history includes, PMI North American, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific Global Congresses, various chapters of PMI, and ProjectWorld and Business Analyst World. Elizabeth was the lead contributor to the PMBOK® Guide – Fourth Edition in the new Collect Requirements Section 5.1 and to the BABOK® Guide – 2.0 Chapter on Business Analysis Planning and Monitoring. Elizabeth has co-authored the CBAP Certification Study Guide and the Practitioner’s Guide to Requirements Planning, as well as industry articles that have been published worldwide. She can be reached at [email protected]

Realizing Value:The Latest Trend or Here to Stay – Part 2

Written by Elizabeth Larson on March 15, 2016. Posted in Articles.

In January we published our annual article about the seven trends in business analysis and project management. In Part 1 of this article we discussed the relationship of value to all of the trends. We also defined that very ambiguous term.

We showed how innovation for the sake of being innovative and Agile for the sake of being Agile was meaningless as ends in themselves. Finally, we looked at the first two trends through the prism of adding value to the organization. In Part 2 we will discuss value in relation to the other 5 trends.

Trend #3 Moving beyond our traditional PM and BA roles

We predicted that traditional BA and PM responsibilities would be augmented by involvement in strategic activities. This strategic focus is needed to ensure that our initiatives bring value to the enterprise as a whole, not just segmented interest groups. We said that project managers would be increasingly focused on delivering the benefits and value outlined in the business case and charter and that business analysts who can question the strategic implications of projects and facilitate understanding the real business need behind stated needs will provide increased value to the organization and its customers. In other words, both project managers and business analysts will be expected to add value by ensuring that they deliver it.

Trend #4 Lightweight practices are not just for Scrum anymore

We emphasized that project managers and others are finally making peace with the idea that delivering value is what matters, not whether or not they’re Agile or how Agile are they. As we said, the angst increasingly is no longer about whether organizations or teams can call themselves Agile; but rather whether what they’re doing benefits the organization. We are happy to see that the industry conversation has already begun to shift from being Agile to providing value “agile-y.”

Trend #5 Certifications – and the winners are. . . .

Certifications and professional designations are almost always obtained to provide value. Sometimes the value is to the organization. For example, hiring certified PMs, BAs, or scrum masters means that the hiring organization can rely on a level of knowledge and consistency, thus avoiding training and onboarding costs. Sometimes the perceived value is to the individual who feels that the designation will increase their value to a hiring organization. We do not know which certifications will be perceived as providing the most value to individuals or organizations or, for that matter, how much value they provide. However, we do know that the number of PMPs, CBAPs, PMI-PBAs, CSMs, and CPOs continues to increase and will for the foreseeable future.

Trend #6 Designs during analysis bring business value quicker

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To understand how this trend focuses on value, it is helpful to understand the distinction between requirements (descriptions of the business need) and designs (descriptions of the functionality needed to build the solution). Requirements help us understand what problem needs to be solved and/or what opportunity is out there for the organization to take advantage of. Designs are not technical specifications. They are features of the solution which will address the business need. Remember that requirements and designs are not separate phases of the project lifecycle. They are both part of business analysis. So how do designs add value? By developing designs in conjunction with requirements rather than waiting for the requirements to be fleshed out, we enable each feature to be developed and delivered sooner, thereby creating value sooner.

Trend #7 Workforce trends are impacting project work and organizations

There are a number of trends related to getting work done and the need for value.

Communication is increasingly becoming less formal and more frequent. Therefore, the cost of meetings, formerly associated with formal, scripted, inflexible agendas is decreasing. That is not to say that we will return to the chaos of disorganized, unproductive meetings. It means that the facilitator as dictator and gatekeeper of a formal agenda is a thing of the past. As part of this trend, we are starting to reclaim some of the connectedness we recently lost working virtually. People now realize that face-to-face meetings are generally more effective and can be shorter than virtual meetings, despite the improved online tools. This translates to lower costs and increased value.

This means that meetings will need to be valuable to the participants. Having short, informal, face-to-face meetings that can quickly get to the desired meeting outcome enables participants to spend more of their time working towards their operational business objectives. It follows that the better they can meet their goals and objectives, the more value they bring to their organizations. Meetings that are “fantastic wastes of time” and which do not add value will no longer be accepted.

Similarly, to address the preferences of many younger workers, learning events are becoming shorter and more personalized. Increasingly they need to be seen as highly valuable. Social media will help ensure that large numbers of people become aware of low-value learning events, which will ultimately lead to low attendance and eventually its demise.
Organizations are beginning to adjust to the fact that they need to add value to employees if they have any hope of retaining them. Both younger workers with new ideas and older workers with knowledge and experience will present a challenge to organizations who have to continually find ways to provide value to these workers and motivate them to stay.

In summary, the seven trends that we discussed in January are not separate trends. Each contributes to the overall value that PMs and BAs provide to organizations. And, they are definitely here to stay.

About the Authors

Realizing Value – The Latest Trend or Here to Stay? Part 1

Written by Elizabeth Larson on February 29, 2016. Posted in Articles.

In January we published our annual article about the seven trends in business analysis and project management. If we examine these trends, we see that they have one theme—they are all about value. We see and hear the word “value” in articles, blogs, on videos, and even in the definition of business analysis: “…analyzing business needs and recommending solutions that deliver value…” (BABOK® Guide 3.0).

ith so much emphasis on value, we wonder whether the term “value” is just the latest buzzword, or if there is enduring significance to the word. This article will examine each of the seven trends, discuss its relationship to value, and explore whether the concept of value is simply a trend or here to stay.

But what is “value?” It means so many different things to different people. Does it have to be quantified or can it be subjective? One of the authors (Elizabeth) has worked with an equal number of sponsors who required value to be measured and those who inherently understood the value of strategic projects. The latter group didn’t want to waste time quantifying something like “competitive advantage” or how much it would cost to upgrade technology, or although it could be done, measure the cost of risk avoidance.

So first, let’s attempt to define that very ambiguous word. As we said, it means different things depending on the application of the term to the business at hand. For example, in Marketing, the focus is on the customer perception of the goods and services and their willingness to pay for them. In economics, there are two components—utility and power. In Accounting, it has to do with monetary worth. We suggest that project managers and business analysts consider all these different aspects.

In 2015, the central theme of our Trends article was Innovation, without addressing whether innovation delivered value. It seemed that every organization wanted to be innovative, and every person wanted to be an entrepreneur. However, we have seen that innovation, disruption, and entrepreneurship for their own sake is not productive. Organizations now realize that a focus on “disruptive” innovation can indeed be, well, very disruptive. More and more of them are finding that disruption is expensive and that entrepreneurship might better be handled by internal people (intrapreneurs) who have organizational history and knowledge. Said another way, there has to be a business case for innovation, and it must provide enough value to outweigh the costs and risks of disruption.

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With this in mind, let’s look at first two 2016 trends and the ways in which they bring value to organizations.

Trend #1 Proving our value through Business Relationship Management

As we said in the January article, executives have long been interested in getting the greatest value from initiatives. However, they have struggled with how to determine and measure it, as well as what the term actually means. We suggested that the role of the business relationship manager could work with executives and business managers to help them define value for their initiatives (projects, programs, and portfolios), as well as help them measure the value at agreed-upon intervals. We have seen an uptick in the number of articles, conferences, and webinars on this topic, which indicates an increased awareness of the importance of organizational performance and value.

Trend #2 Agile is gaining wide acceptance but still faces challenges

We suggested that although Agile is gaining traction and has reached a level of maturity, there are still significant challenges. If we look through the prism of value, it seems that these challenges have arisen because many organizations view “being Agile” as an end in itself, rather than focusing on how Agile projects provide value.

In his article published in BA Times on February 9, David Shaffer called this out by saying, “The goal of software development is not to be Agile. …Being Agile is a worthless goal.”

Related Article: It’s Time to put Value in the Driver’s Seat

Let’s look at the challenges we listed and how a focus on value would resolve these issues.

Is everyone on board? We have long talked about how common it is to have a mismatch of goals among the executives, mid-level management, business stakeholders, and team members. The result of the mismatch is unmet expectations and disappointment. However, if every group was committed to providing value rather than becoming Agile, there would be a greater alignment of expectations and reduced conflict.
Can teams be truly cross-functional? There are many online discussions about having generalists vs. specialists on Agile teams. It seems that there is a great deal of emotion surrounding the discussions, in which some parties say that if there are specialists, it is not real Scrum while others talk about Scrum having outlived its usefulness.

Perhaps if we changed the conversation from the makeup of the teams to getting products to business stakeholders sooner, thus delivering value sooner, then the emphasis would be on what is the best makeup of the team to add value, rather than on adhering to Agile/Scrum roles.

How much governance should the team follow? Needless to say, the amount of governance depends on how much is needed to ensure the solution delivers value.

In this article we discussed the importance of value, we defined it, and described value as a central theme for all the project management and business analysis trends. We suggested that innovation for the sake of being innovative and Agile for the sake of being Agile were not only unhelpful but also meaningless as ends in themselves. Finally, we looked at the first two trends through the prism of adding value to the organization. In Part 2 we will discuss value in relation to the other 5 trends.

¹ Business Dictionary http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/value.html

About the Authors