Managing Products with Agility [P1]: Managing Products with Agility/Forecasting and Release Planning - Small batch delivery & big batch finance how to speak the language of forecasting

Question 1

Do devs tend to solve the problem in the same way in retrospect

Answer 1

no

Question 2

Comment on the easiest scenario to resolve the problem of a client not liking what was made

Answer 2

If a mistake is made or the customer doesn’t like what was made, it’s far easier to change direction if we didn’t go too far on the wrong path before having something to deliver → i.e. Scrum and small pieces

Question 3

why would you consider an “incremental finance” approach

Answer 3

can only use forecasting for complex things

need to understand the cone of uncertainty

–> model representing the variance in estimates you’ll find in a complex system. When you are close to done, estimates vary less. When you are much further from done, estimates vary much more and it’s not a linear relationship

Question 4

How to explain “incremental finance” to senior leaders

Answer 4

• Show them that long-range estimates include exponentially increasing variance as predicted by the cone of uncertainty
• Break things down into smaller deliverables and fund those → e.g. 3 month initiatives and complete those
• don’t batch
• employ an empirical process to investing in your company’s initiatives through with incremental finance and break the large batch project funding cycle that prevents true organizational agility