Helping Product Owners Define Value

Helping Product Owners Define Value and Prioritize Requirements

There are numerous software development methodologies available that provide project teams excellent guidance on how to build things right. However when it comes to whether we are building the right things, that task has been passed to the Product Owners without a great deal of guidance. It becomes a matter of understanding the job that needs to be done and what value that adds to the organization in order to decide the importance of specific requirements. Kent will discuss how to help Product Owners define the value delivered by a project through the use of a value model based on the project’s purpose, considerations, costs, benefits, and the relation to the organization’s strategy. We will also discuss how to help Product Owners use a regular reevaluation of the value model to decide what requirements should be completed, in what order they should be completed, and perhaps more importantly, what requirements should be ignored.

A business systems coach with more than a decade of experience, Kent McDonald has successfully guided projects and designed business solutions in the financial services, health insurance, performance marketing, human services, non-profit, and automotive industries. His background includes delivering data-intensive and Web-enabled application development projects that provide outstanding business value. He has coached client staff to help teams reach project goals more productively and effectively. Kent is a sought after speaker, writer, and coach on project leadership, business analysis, and delivering business value through projects.

Kent is a co-author of the Declaration of Interdependence, and co-founder and current President of the Agile Project Leadership Network.

A copy of Kent McDonald's PowerPoint presentation