We’ve seen teams make some odd decisions over the years, and the thing that we always end up puzzling over is, why? How come they made that decision?
Sometimes it seems like it’s just what they can agree on, even if no one’s happy. Underneath the surface, we observe, everyone seems to be striving for different objectives. Rallying around business value, the reason for the work in the first place, is one obvious way to bring diverse teams together.
Although it may seem obvious, we can say for sure that having a goal of delivering business value is far less common that having a goal to ship a feature, upgrade a system, consolidate onto a single platform or fulfill a requirement. Focusing on delivering business value instead gives the team a lot more latitude to adjust their specs, priorities and decisions as the project unfolds.
Building a culture oriented around business value may sound like basic common sense. But with all the complexity involved in shipping an IT project, it’s easy to lose sight of the bigger goals, that is, if we ever had them in sight to begin with. Ensuring that everyone on the project understands how their work contributes to business results will improve collaboration, drive better decisions and yield more effective results overall.