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Five Crucial Outcomes of any Lean Agile Organization

Sunil Roy
Sunil Roy

Five key outcomes for any lean agile organization are identified: 1. Customer satisfaction 2. Ensuring the product meets customer and business needs rather than just requirements 3. Timely deliveries 4. Quality 5. Motivated teams Motivated teams is emphasized as the most undervalued of these outcomes. The document elaborates further on each outcome and why they are important, particularly focusing on truly understanding customer needs, enabling frequent feedback through timely deliveries, co-locating teams to improve quality, and building trust to motivate teams. It suggests these outcomes should be priorities for any organization, not just lean agile ones.

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Five Crucial Outcomes of ANY Lean Agile Organization What outcomes do really matter for a lean agile organization? 1. Customer Satisfaction 2. Is the Product meeting the Customer & Business Need (vs. Requirements)? 3. Timely Deliveries 4. Quality 5. Motivated Teams While the low level metrics are important, the above mentioned Outcomes are the ones that we should focus most on. Why is Motivated Teams in italic above? Since that is the most undervalued, unfortunately. A provoking thought: We pay so much attention to these outcomes in a lean agile organization. Shouldnt they be used in ANY organization?
- Interested in some elaboration of the points? 1. Customer Satisfaction: This is the most important outcome, since it impacts the growth of the company the most. We need them to stay with us to survive. If we do not satisfy them, someone else will. o External Customer We need to take care of their whole experienceright from pre-sales to after-sales support. The value they get vs. the price they pay, is also important here. o Internal Customer Get them involved in your creation process (inputs, feedback, etc.), since they will consume our product. 2. Is the Product meeting the Customer & Business Need (vs. Requirements)? o Customer Need The most common misconception is we have fully understood what the customer needs. Many times, the customer himself is not sure what he needs, though he may give his wants to us. The need is an appropriate high level solution to his Problem Statement, and so we should begin with what his Problem Statement is. The wants are what he is telling us, and it could be different from the need because of how he expresses it, how we interpret it, assumptions, etc. o Business Need is what our own organization needs in the long runthe Product Road Map, the Business Strategy, etc. A product company cannot meet all the requests from all clients, and has to take tough calls on what will help their product and what will not. It can of course take care of specific customization, but being mindful of how they will consume our product upgrades. 3. Timely Deliveries: This is often under serious threat, due to the inherent unpredictable nature of software development. It is generally wiser to be mindful of this unpredictability, and commit to the customer accordingly, especially the external customer. If the customer is ready to consume our software frequently, it is better to play with the scope during difficult times, rather than the date. Also, in cases where the date is sacrosanct, the scope is the best factor to play with, unless the only option left is to alter the cost (should generally not happen at the very end). Make frequent deliveries from the team, even if it is only to the internal customers. Frequent deliveries will force a culture of finishing the features rather than starting too many, and will also enable frequent feedback. Frequent feedback is actually a big reason that the truly agile projects (not the ones on paper) are far more successful.
4. Quality: A factor that should actually be a habit, is many times a result of late corrections, and thus is given a big push in agile projects. Quality is enabled better by co-location and a small self-organized team, having face to face conversations. An extremely dangerous myth that we need to stay away from is that agile projects do not need testing experts. 5. Motivated Teams: This unfortunately was not a very important factor in the traditional days. Agile organizations (true ones) are paying a Lot of attention to it, and helps not only in retention, but also in getting far better products and far better outcomes in every sense. The biggest challenge to achieving this has been the Trust, unfortunately.

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Five Crucial Outcomes of any Lean Agile Organization

  • 1. Five Crucial Outcomes of ANY Lean Agile Organization What outcomes do really matter for a lean agile organization? 1. Customer Satisfaction 2. Is the Product meeting the Customer & Business Need (vs. Requirements)? 3. Timely Deliveries 4. Quality 5. Motivated Teams While the low level metrics are important, the above mentioned Outcomes are the ones that we should focus most on. Why is Motivated Teams in italic above? Since that is the most undervalued, unfortunately. A provoking thought: We pay so much attention to these outcomes in a lean agile organization. Shouldnt they be used in ANY organization?
  • 2. - Interested in some elaboration of the points? 1. Customer Satisfaction: This is the most important outcome, since it impacts the growth of the company the most. We need them to stay with us to survive. If we do not satisfy them, someone else will. o External Customer We need to take care of their whole experienceright from pre-sales to after-sales support. The value they get vs. the price they pay, is also important here. o Internal Customer Get them involved in your creation process (inputs, feedback, etc.), since they will consume our product. 2. Is the Product meeting the Customer & Business Need (vs. Requirements)? o Customer Need The most common misconception is we have fully understood what the customer needs. Many times, the customer himself is not sure what he needs, though he may give his wants to us. The need is an appropriate high level solution to his Problem Statement, and so we should begin with what his Problem Statement is. The wants are what he is telling us, and it could be different from the need because of how he expresses it, how we interpret it, assumptions, etc. o Business Need is what our own organization needs in the long runthe Product Road Map, the Business Strategy, etc. A product company cannot meet all the requests from all clients, and has to take tough calls on what will help their product and what will not. It can of course take care of specific customization, but being mindful of how they will consume our product upgrades. 3. Timely Deliveries: This is often under serious threat, due to the inherent unpredictable nature of software development. It is generally wiser to be mindful of this unpredictability, and commit to the customer accordingly, especially the external customer. If the customer is ready to consume our software frequently, it is better to play with the scope during difficult times, rather than the date. Also, in cases where the date is sacrosanct, the scope is the best factor to play with, unless the only option left is to alter the cost (should generally not happen at the very end). Make frequent deliveries from the team, even if it is only to the internal customers. Frequent deliveries will force a culture of finishing the features rather than starting too many, and will also enable frequent feedback. Frequent feedback is actually a big reason that the truly agile projects (not the ones on paper) are far more successful.
  • 3. 4. Quality: A factor that should actually be a habit, is many times a result of late corrections, and thus is given a big push in agile projects. Quality is enabled better by co-location and a small self-organized team, having face to face conversations. An extremely dangerous myth that we need to stay away from is that agile projects do not need testing experts. 5. Motivated Teams: This unfortunately was not a very important factor in the traditional days. Agile organizations (true ones) are paying a Lot of attention to it, and helps not only in retention, but also in getting far better products and far better outcomes in every sense. The biggest challenge to achieving this has been the Trust, unfortunately.