How to Quantify and Focus on Critical Value Objectives (Tom Gilb Product Stream)

How to Quantify,
and Focus on,
Critical Value Objectives
Not on ‘supporting ideas’
like
functions, use cases, coding and user stories.
Lviv, Ukraine. #ITArena2015
Date: 03.10.2015
Time: 18:15 - 19:00
Lecturer
tom@Gilb.com, @ImTomGilb

The practical art of analyzing the
‘real’ Objectives.
Right level, right relationships to
other objectives.

The Obligatory
Henry Ford Quote
for all Lviv IT
Arena Speakers
‘lighter telephone kiosks’
as
paraphrased by
my hero
Steve Jobs

This is what customers pay us for -
to sweat all these details
so it's easy and pleasant for them
to use our computers.
We're supposed to be really good at this.
That doesn't mean we don't listen to customers, but
it's hard for them to tell you what they want
when they've never seen anything remotely like it.”
Steve Jobs (1955-2011) .

Steve set value objectives
He did not decide on detailed
technology.
He set the following objective when
the original Mac was being
designed.
“A manager must feel
in control of the Mac
within 30 minutes of
beginning to play with
it:
(if not he will buy an
IBM PC instead) http://www.businessinsider.com/steve-jobs-mac-video-1984-2014-1
http://time.com/1847/steve-jobs-mac/

In my Planning Language it might have looked like this
Mac Usability:
Type: critical product quality requirement.
Ambition: a short demo would enable a manger to feel he could get the Mac to do his
bidding.
Stakeholders: Mac Team, Individual Mac Owners, Apple Stockholders.
Owner of Requirement: Steve Jobs
Solution Designer: Andy Hertzfeld.
Scale: time for a manager to feel in control,
from ﬁrst touch, until request to buy it.
Fail: over 30 minutes, and no sale.
Tolerable: 30 minutes.
Goal: 10 minutes

The Real World of Multiple Values and Costs
which must be quantiﬁed
if you want to manage them at all

Part 2
The practical art of
turning critical values
into quantiﬁed (clear)
and measurable (trackable)
speciﬁcations.

Is Love unmeasurable?
• “Love should never be
too much or too less,
yet it cannot be
measured.”
• ― Rizi Dame C. Briz
• http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/measurement

www.Gilb.com Slide 3
Exercise: Aspects of Love, or 
Love is a many splendored thing!
• Make inventory of love’s many
aspects
• Quantify one requirements for love
• Duration: 6 minutes
See note for Sutra

Love Attributes:  
Brainstormed By Dutch Engineers
•Kissed-ness
•Care
•Sharing
•Respect
•Comfort
•Friendship
•Sex
•Understanding
•Trust
• Support
• Attention
• Passion
• Satisfaction
• ...
• ...
• ...

Decomposing ‘Trust’
Other aspects of Trust:
1. ‘Truthfulness’
2. Broken Agreements
3. Late Appointments
4. Late delivery
5. Gossiping to Others

Trust. Truthfulness
• Love.Trust.Truthfulness
Ambition: No lies.
Scale:
Average Black lies/month from [defined sources].
Meter:
independent confidential log from sample of the
defined sources.
Past Lie Level:
Past [My Old Mate, 2004] 42 <-Bart
Goal
[My Current Mate, Year = 2005] Past Lie Level/2
Black: Defined: Non White Lies

Love.Trust. Truthfulness
• Truthfulness
Scale: Average Black
lies/month
Past 42
Goal < 21

Should Christians Quantify Love?

Book of First Corinthians, Chapter 13
Thinketh no evil
Rejoiceth not in
iniquity
Rejoiceth in the truth
Beareth all things
Believeth all things
Hopeth all things
Endureth all things
Never faileth
A person who loves acts the
following way toward the
person being loved:
Suffereth long
Is kind
Envieth not
Vaunteth not itself
Is not puffed up
Doth not behave itself
unseemly
Seeketh not her own
Is not easily provoked

A Paper on ‘Love Quantified’ 
http://www.gilb.com/tiki-download_file.php?fileId=335

Mathematical Models of Love
& Happiness
J. C. Sprott
Department of Physics
University of Wisconsin - Madison
Presented to the
Chaos and Complex Systems Seminar
in Madison, Wisconsin
on February 6, 2001

3 Practical Quantiﬁcation
Methods, for ANY quality
or value
1. Use domain know-how, and work it out
in a few minutes
2. Decompose, like ‘love’ ,
one or two levels
(Cartesian Analysis)
‘until quantiﬁcation becomes obvious’
3. Google it:
Project timeliness metrics: 395,000 hits
Usability Metrics 583,000 hits
Social awareness metrics 2.6 mill. hit
Software security metrics 12,3 mill. hits

Part 3
The use of a planning language
to relate
the expected impacts
of
any strategies
on
any quantiﬁed
value objectives.

Graphical Impact, of strategies (designs)
on Performance Values
and associated costs

Beng skeptical about estimates and numbers: systematically
EVIDENCE
SOURCE
Estimate
± Uncertainty
or
Range
Credibility
Lowest
Range
Level
Credibility
Level
Credibility
and Lowest
Range

Part 4
The Value Decision Table
as a tool
for modelling
your entire planning and PM effort.
For presentations,
‘for What if?’ Questions,
and for actual Project Management
(real value delivery increments).

Energized Work: Trevor Lea-Cox 2015
29

Gilb.comNovember 2, 2014
30
Design
Objectives
Costs
estimated impact
of a design on a
critical objective
Value for
Money
Man-Chie Tse1,2 & Ravinder Singh Kahlon

This Table was done in 1 day and got my customer £50 million
to fund 1,000-person organizational improvement

Class Exercise Medical, Ward 2015 
Richard Smith’s Tool (needsandmeans.com)

Part 5
Value Project Management:
The Evolutionary delivery
of
measurable value
early
and
frequently.

The ‘Evo’ Startup Week
Monday: Quantify Critical Few Objectives
Tuesday: identify most powerful strategies to meet objectives.
Wednesday: estimate how good the strategies are for the
objectives
Thursday: decompose most efﬁcient strategy to a deliverable
value next week
Friday: get manager Ok to see if you can really delivery value
next week or not
http://www.gilb.com/dl568 for Startup Week Details

The ‘Evo’ Process
Evo 1: Gather from all the key stakeholders the top few (5 to 20) most-
critical goals that the project needs to deliver. Give each goal a
reference name (a tag).
Evo 2: For each goal, define a scale of measure and a ‘final’ goal level. For
example:
Reliable: Scale: Mean Time Before Failure. Goal: >1 month.
Evo 3: Define approximately 4 budgets for your most limited resources
(for example, time, people, money, and equipment).
Evo 4: Write up these plans for the goals and budgets (try to ensure this
is kept to only one page).
Evo 5: Negotiate with the key stakeholders to formally agree the goals
and budgets.
Evo 6: Plan to deliver some benefit (that is, progress towards the goals)
in weekly (or shorter) increments (Evo steps).
Evo 7: Implement the project in Evo steps. Report to project sponsors
after each Evo step (weekly, or shorter) with your best available
estimates or measures, for each performance goal and each
resource budget.
Evo 8: On a single page, summarize the progress to
date, towards achieving the goals and the costs incurred.

The ‘Evo’ Project Management Process
Learning Fast Quantitatively

Free Book
tinyurl.com/ValuePlanning

How to Quantify and Focus on Critical Value Objectives (Tom Gilb Product Stream)

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