Can Measuring Customer Satisfaction be achieved in Agile Projects? The Agile Manifesto was prepared in 2001. It embodied Four Values and Twelve Principles that signalled a brand-new approach to Software Development. The first, and crucial Principle states:-.

“Our Highest Priority Is To Satisfy The Customer Through Early And Continuous Delivery Of Valuable Software”.

This is a simple enough statement to understand. What is not so obvious is the effort required to keep to the implied promise in this Principle. It requires:-.

Valuable Software

To the Customer that means Software that fits their Requirements and is defect-free. To achieve this, the Requirements must be carefully constructed and the Software must be rigorously Tested. The Seventh Principle states that “Working Software Is The Primary Measure Of Progress”. That is Software that has been debugged and performs according to Specification.

Early Delivery

The Software must be Delivered as early as possible. This is attained in 2 ways. Firstly by delivering the leanest possible Product that will satisfy the Customer expectations, without any frills attached. The Tenth Principle explains this as “Simplicity”. The 2nd action is to break down the code into small work packets. These work packets can be coded and tested in a short time of two to 8 weeks. This is specified in the Third Principle.

Continuous Delivery

This requires that the pace of delivery must be constant and sustained. This is achieved by holding Retrospective Meetings frequently. Retrospectives enable Continuous Improvement that can be applied to the Process and practice to optimise efficiency. Through regular Sprint Review meetings the rate of Development can be increased or at least continual throughout the Project. The Eighth Principle states that “Agile Processes Promote Sustainable Development”.

Abiding by the First Principle is the first step in achieving Customer Satisfaction. There is another crucial step to factor in – the Customer should be involved in and dedicated to the Project. One of the Four Values requires “Customer Collaboration”.

Measuring Customer Satisfaction: Customer Collaboration

‘Customer Collaboration’ can be really tricky to attain, due to the fact that it is an initiative that has to be driven outside the Business unit’s sphere of influence, and to succeed requires the buy-in of C-suite executives.
In many organisations this needs an good deal of Change Management. Many of the Customers for the Software expect that their Requirements will be Documented and signed-off and that the Development Team will go off and do whatever they need to do, ultimately returning with a Product for User Acceptance.

The Fourth Principle states that.

“Business People And Developers Must Work Together Daily Throughout The Project.”.

One of the key reasons for Collaboration is that Business has become extremely volatile. The company needs to be extremely responsive to Market forces of competition. Innovative disturbance can alter business Model over night. In addition, the gathering of Requirements can be an imperfect science. What was originally defined may have been inaccurate. This requires the ability to be flexible and fluid when it comes to Changes midstream. The Second Agile Principle states that the Scrum Team (Agile Scrum Master, Scrum Product Owner and Scrum Development Team) should be prepared to implement Changes willingly throughout Development.

Stakeholder Interactions

The most successful Projects rely on constant interaction between all Stakeholders. The Sixth Principle highlights that Communication needs to be Face-To-Face where-ever possible. The reason for this is that body language and tone is a crucial component of Communication, which is not possible via a phone-call or e-mail. This is why e-mail messages and SMS’s are often misinterpreted. In today’s world of remote Work, it is not always possible to Work Face-to-Face. The ability to Communicate Online through applications such as Skype or Webex makes it easier to mimic Face-to-Face conversations where video is used.

Measuring Customer Satisfaction: Getting the Best-Fit Product.

One of the biggest challenges in designing and building the optimal Product is determining what is critical and what is “nice-to-have”. In order to Deliver the right Product at the right time, it is essential to strip away any non-essential Features that add only nominal Value to the Product as a whole. This is done before the Project begins by specifying the “Minimum Viable Product” (MVP). The Project to Develop the Product can then be kicked off as soon as an MVP has actually been designed. This is delivered incrementally where the planned work from the Sprint Planning Meeting is delivered in a Product Increment following acceptance within the Sprint Review Meeting.

Keeping the Product Lean and Mean does not stop there. Bearing in mind that Changes are asked for while the Development is in progress, every Change must be assessed to ensure it is critical to Project success and having a practical Product. This should be performed in consultation with all the Business Stakeholders, so that a democratic and tactful choice is reached by means of a majority vote.

We found these books great for finding out more information on Agile Scrum:

Determining Customer Satisfaction.

When User Requirements are being collected, by crafting User Stories, for example, it is necessary to define Customer Satisfaction right from the start. While customer journeys and mapping that journey are typically utilized when dealing with external Customers, they are very useful for any Customer engagement. Mapping the Customer journey in this case can likewise assist in the Change Management Process where your Stakeholders have actually never participated in the Agile method of Work.

Measuring Customer Satisfaction: Knowing you did your Best.

One of the greatest indications that your Project delivered a good Customer experience will be where the Business adopts the Team disciplines of Agile outside IT. If the rest of the Business is impressed with the way the Team came together to do the Work, delivered and then regrouped Post-Project this could start an extremely critical Change in your company.