The Art of Business Value

Playful and thought-provoking, The Art of Business Value explores what business value means, why it matters, and how it should affect your software development and delivery practices. More than any other IT delivery approach, DevOps (and Agile thinking in general) makes business value a central concern. This book examines the role of business value in software and makes a compelling case for why a clear understanding of business value will change the way you deliver software.

CHAPTER 1: THE PROBLEMAgile and Lean practices are all about maximizing the businessvalue we deliver. Agile books tell us that business value is important,but none of them seem to tell us what business value is, thoughthey do scatter clues here and there. In this chapter, however, weexamine the clues and find that they come to nothing. Businessvalue is a mystery at the core of Agile practice.CHAPTER 2: THE MEANINGOur first step in solving the mystery is to consult the experts.Unfortunately, the experts just deepen the mystery for us. It turnsout that we need to cast a wider net to catch our elusive target.CHAPTER 3: THE CULTUREGood detective work involves observing people. We find that thereseems to be a connection between organizational culture andbusiness value. But to understand it, we have to immerse ourselvesin corporate culture, rather than reject it or stand apart from it.CHAPTER 4: THE RULESWhat could bureaucracy possibly have to do with business value?A lot, perhaps. Warning: this chapter contains graphic depictionsof bureaucracy being applied to agility. You may come away wantingto produce burndown charts in triplicate.CHAPTER 5: THE CIOSomeone has been forgotten in all this talk about business value.She makes a mysterious entrance, claiming to be following the sametrail of clues that we are. Or . . . could it be that she is responsible?CHAPTER 6: THE CLUEAha-the case (or the CAS) takes a turn. We skip lightly into thefourth dimension, take a look back, and all becomes clear. But you'llfind no spoilers here in the Table of Contents.CHAPTER 7: THE DELIVERYWe lock up the culprit and explain the tools we have used to solvethe mystery. You will begin to see business value as an art and walkaway with surprising new ideas on how to go about creating it.