Effective Product Backlog Management with Business Value Points

Agile Coaches' Corner

In today’s episode of the Agile Coaches’ Corner, returning guest and AgileThought colleague, Adam Ulery, will be joining the podcast!

Adam is a perpetually curious, continuous learner who is always willing to encourage others to try new things (as he very often does himself). He’s a Senior Agile Coach and investor in multifamily properties. He’s focused on helping organizations clarify and meet their business outcomes and loves to help companies become resilient, rediscover curiosity, and change their traditional approach to business.

Today they will be discussing Business Value Points (BVPs). Business Value Points are a way for for leaders, sponsors, and funders of a project to measure progress. It enables them to understand the progress being made towards building their product. Adam shares a more in-depth look at what BVPs are, why we should care, and breaks down what they measure! He also provides tons of practical tips and methods for generating BVPs for Product Backlog items.

Key Takeaways

What are business value points? And why should we care?

BVPs are a great way for leaders to measure progress against their investment

Provides leaders, sponsors, and funders of a project a way to understand the progress teams are making towards delivering value with their product

Compliments Story Points to give a more complete picture of the Product Backlog

What do Business Value Points measure?

BVPs measure the amount of value a feature or story is expected to deliver. The ratio between BVP and Story Points helps inform prioritization decisions

The three factors of Story Points: Complexity, Uncertainty, Effort

The three factors of Business Value Points: User Value, Time Criticality, Risk Reduction or Opportunity Enablement

Adam Ulrey breaks down the three factors in BVP:

User Value: the value of a particular feature to the business (or to the end user)

Time Criticality (or “Cost of Delay”): How important it is that the feature is released right now

Risk Reduction or Opportunity Enablement: Does doing this reduce the risk of future delivery? Is there value in the information we will receive? Will this unlock or enable new business opportunities in some way?

Ways to generate Business Value Points for Product Backlog Items:

Planning Poker

Card Sorting

Mentioned in this Episode:

Adam Ulery (LinkedIn)

Planning Poker®

Card Sorting

Nimble: A Coaching Guide for Responsive Facilitation, by Rebecca Sutherns

Adam Ulery’s Book Pick:

The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve, by G. Edward Griffin

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