Open Dialogue

I’m always looking for ways to promote an agile, user centred approach. Anyone who has taken a few steps into agile development, or taken a few moments to watch actual users, will know that this is the only way to go. It gets results.

Whilst I’m enlightened, I often need to remind myself that I’m often a step ahead of my customers on this. After all, I’m partially responsible for shielding clients from the realities of development. Until I embraced open source and agile, I would often agree to fixed set of features, a fixed deadline and a fixed budget. I’m sure we all did – it was expected.

Not only is a fixed ‘everything’ unrealistic, but it also misses the point. To be effective, we need to make the most of the available budget by delivering on real objectives. We need to ensure we only develop the features that are needed and address real user needs. I believe that an agile, user centred approach is key to this. Here are some good reasons why:

64% of the features included in software projects are rarely or never used.
- Johnson 2002

The average IT project exceeds it’s schedule by 100%.
- Standish 2001

Nearly two thirds of projects significantly overrun their cost estimates.
- Lederer and Prasad 1992

53% of projects cost 189% or more then their original budgets.
- Standish 1995

Only 1 out of 5 IT projects is likely to bring full customer satisfaction.
- Cortex 1995

User involvement is the number 1 reason why a project will succeed.
- Standish 1995

70% Of customers are willing to pay more when they have a positive experience.
- Strativity Group 2009

…and some useful quotes:

“Positive user experience has a direct correlation to positive brand perception.”
- Steve Baty 2006 (based on Jared Spool 1996).

“Features and functions always matter, but user experience has a far greater effect on customer loyalty”
- Jesse James Garret 2002

“An estimate is a probability, and a commitment cannot be made to a probability”.
- Phillip Armour 2002

“A shortcoming with traditional approaches to planning is the failure to acknowledge uncertainty… the best way of dealing with uncertainty it to iterate.”
- Mike Cohn 2006

“An ongoing iterative approach to planning is a quest for value.”
- Mike Cohn 2006

“The most critical risk facing most projects is the risk of developing the wrong product”
- Mike Cohn 2006

“It is critical that new knowledge be acknowledged and factored into an iterative planning process.”
- Mike Cohn 2006

“Teams benefit most by learning about their project and product as they go”
- Lisa Crispin 2006

Acknowledgment: many of these come from the Mike Cohn’s amazing and highly recommended book, Agile Estimating and Planning.

Please let me know if you have any more.