Justifying Business Value, is it possible within Scrum Projects? The signatories to the Agile Manifesto gathered in 2001. Their aim was to define a new way of Delivering Software Products. Together, they agreed that Software Development should aim to deliver “Valuable” Products to the Customer. Let us consider what would make a Product Valuable in the eyes of the Stakeholder.

Firstly, it should meet their expectations, and secondly, and equally as important, it should be a Quality Product. If these Criteria have been met, and the Stakeholders understood the Market correctly. The Product should generate revenue equal to or surpassing the predicted Return on Investment (ROI).

All Agile Frameworks are geared towards producing Value for the business. Scrum is strongly oriented towards producing Business Value as Early and as often as possible. This is accomplished by having Processes that focus on getting Deliverables out as early and as often as possible. The entire Team’s Energy is Focused on Delivering Value. Additionally the Scrum Product Owner is responsible for the Project output.

Justifying Business Value: The Role of the Product Owner

The important Role of the Product Owner calls for somebody who both understands the Company and how it Functions. They must understand the expectations of Stakeholders with respect to the new Product to be Developed. The Product Owner is the steward of the Product Backlog. The Product Backlog is the compendium of all the User Stories that explain the Product. In order to optimise the Value of Delivery, they need to organise the contents by Priority. They do this by ranking the most vital parts as the greatest Priority.

This Process is referred to as “Prioritizing the Product Backlog”. It is a crucial component in Delivering the most Business Value in the quickest time. It is likewise a Continuous Process; the Prioritized Product backlog is “Refined” regularly to make sure that the Prioritization is both current and correct. The Product Owner also plays a major part in defining the Acceptance Criteria. This is defined at a macro level and at a User Story level. These Criteria are used to determine whether a component is complete or not. They are indicators of the Value of that component. In essence, the Product Owner is the Manager of Value for the Project.

Justifying Business Value: Maintaining Value

When the next Sprint Planning Meeting is held, the Development Team will pick the highest Priority Items from the Backlog. They pick as many items as they can complete throughout the Sprint period and dedicate to getting them “Done”. Each Sprint Delivers a Product Increment. This is a working segment of the Product that has actually been Tested and examined against pre-defined Acceptance Criteria. The Product Increment is Demonstrated to the Stakeholders during the Sprint Review Meeting.

What frequently happens at this stage, when faced with this Working part of the entire Product, is that the Stakeholders discover that they need to Change their initial Requirements. This is where Scrum is more responsive than Conventional Project Management; Change is acknowledged and invited. The only stipulation is that Changes can not be introduced throughout a Sprint; however since we are talking about a matter of a 2 to 4 weeks, this is not a long hold-up. By presenting Change Requests as soon as possible, there is an increase in business Value.

Maintaining Quality Drives Business Value

Speed of Delivery is the rationale behind Iterative Development in Sprints. However it must never be achieved by skimping on Quality. Quality is an important component of Business Value; a faulty Product will not Deliver the anticipated Value. It may even trigger reputational Risk. Errors are discovered and removed early, and Code is often Re-tested in later Sprints, as the Product Develops.

The ability to request Changes during Development likewise keeps Quality as well as aligning with the latest Business Requirements.

Keeping the Customer notified and Involved

The Scrum Framework is a very Collaborative Approach to Product Development. The Customers and other Stakeholders are informed of the development of the Product Development by means of Review Meetings. These are held at the end of each Sprint. Transparency is extremely Valued in Scrum. Stakeholders are welcome to visit the Scrum Team area. Artefacts such as the Burndown Chart indicate the current progress of the project to the Stakeholders. Stakeholders have already engaged with the Scrum Team (Agile Scrum Master, Scrum Product Owner, and Scrum Development Team) when the User Stories were being Developed. There is a connection between the Customer and the service provider from the start of the project.

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Justifying Business Value: Validation of the Effort

Even the best-planned Projects might fail for a range of reasons. Maybe the Product being Developed has actually outdated or Market sentiment has changed. In Traditional Projects, the Project is normally completed before a choice to cancel the Product is made. Scrum is really Agile in this regard. Once again, it is the Product Owner who makes this call. They can make it at any time throughout the Project, even mid-way through a Sprint.

This can be a temporary halt, where the Project is reassessed and possibly re-geared or recalibrated before continuing, or it can be cancelled completely. What happens in this case is that the Business Justification that was present at the start of the Project is no longer valid, and it makes economic sense to stop the Project as soon as possible. In this way, financial and resource costs are minimised and freed up for another, more Viable Project. Although there was some spend on the Project, the early halt has avoided further outlay.

Of course, most Projects will complete and Deliver a finished Product. The ROI will not be known immediately, as there is usually a lag between Project completion and achieving the expected benefits. However, Program and Portfolio Management can measure the final Business Value months or years after Project completion, based on the original Customer expectations. There are Product Owner Roles at these levels, they essentially perform the Role of a Product Owner at Program and Portfolio level, as well as a Chief Product Owner, who can be appointed in the case of large Projects with multiple Scrum Teams. These Product Owners are all the custodians of Business Value for the Company, no matter at what level they operate.

Value-Based Delivery

The Value-Based Delivery of Scrum is a constant throughout any Scrum Project, which is why it has been so extensively adopted in lots of Environments that Require Software Development. Scrum was initially described as a Framework that would be appropriate for any kind of Teamwork, not simply Software Development, and is slowly being executed by enterprises for other Business systems and even the Company as a whole. The Collaborative and democratic design is better for Companies dealing with digital improvement and the need to constantly innovate in the twenty-first century.