Business Value Is Not Only Dollars – Results from Case Study Research on Agile Software Projects

Abstract

Business value is a key concept in agile software development. This paper presents results of a case study on how business value and its creation is perceived in the context of agile projects. Our overall conclusion is that the project participants almost never use an explicit and structured approach to guide the value creation throughout the project. Still, the application of agile methods in the studied cases leads to satisfied clients. An interesting result of the study represents the fact that the agile process of many projects differs significantly from what is described in the agile practitioners' books as best practices. The key implication for research and practice is that we have an incentive to pursue the study of value creation in agile projects and to complement it by providing guidelines for better client's involvement, as well as by developing structured methods that will enhance the value-creation in a project.

A Model for Business Value in Large-Scale Agile and Lean Software Development

“…However, as Racheva et al have demonstrated, the definition of the term business value is vague and ambiguous, both among practitioners [18] and in the literature [17]. While Racheva et al seek to remedy this by creating a process model for the requirement prioritization process in agile and lean teams [16], our proposal is a model of the concept of business value in itself.…”

“…Racheva et al has done comprehensive work in analyzing the state of the art and practice [17,18] regarding the definition of business value in agile organizations. They arrive at the same conclusion as we do: the definition of business value is unclear and varied.…”

“…This is maybe best illustrated by the literature study [17] and interviews with practitioners [18] performed by Racheva et al 2009 Racheva et al note in their literature study [17] that of all the scientific papers reviewed only five papers include a definition of the term business value; in the rest of the papers the term is a "self-evident concept." When interviewing practitioners [18] they note that the definition of the term business value may even vary within the same organization depending on the structural differences between clients and projects Business value is often used as a tool for determining whether a feature or product is going to be profitable in comparison to the investment. Will the organization profit from implementing the feature?…”

“…In reality, however, this is too narrow a definition, as exemplified by case studies performed by Racheva et al [18]. Practitioners ask themselves not only what the feature is worth in dollars, but also questions like what the development organization will gain from implementing the feature, how the customer relationship will benefit from the feature, etc.…”

Modeling and Selection of Interdependent Software Requirements Using Fuzzy Graphs

“…It has been widely recognize in the literature that users' preferences (customers' preferences) of software requirements can determine their customer values [67,68] as highly preferred software requirements are more likely to be purchased and used by the (potential) users. On the other hand, users preferring a requirement r j may also prefer a requirement r i (with the probability p(r i |r j )).…”