Drive Down Uncertainty of WHY and Learn Fast, optimizing the organization’s alignment with the enterprise’s strategic imperatives ensures that effort and expense are directed toward the most important goals.
Should we even consider doing this?
Portfolio Alignment
Purpose
Intake process for Epics to be considered
Product Category Team alignment with the business strategies ensures effort and expense are directed toward the most important business objectives and the most valuable work
Validation that the epic is aligned to strategic business intent/outcomes
Agreement on what business problems are being addressed by the epic
A shared understanding of the business value and the Cost of Delay
Agreement on the initial SWAG or hypothesis of the level of effort to deliver the business value
Epic Brief (or equivalent in ALM tool) needs to be started (following sections completed):
Epic Problem Statement
What problem is being solved by this epic?
Defines value
Desired Outcomes & Success Criteria
Why is this epic being built?
User Personas & Context of Usage
Who is consuming this epic? How are they using it?
Business Risks
What uncertainties exist that jeopardize the success of the epic?
Assumptions (about the market)
What assumptions are being made about the market that jeopardize the success of the epic?
Mapped Capabilities
What company capabilities are being impacted by this epic?
RACI
R – Product Category Team, Product Line Team
A – Product Category Team
C – Product Manager, SMEs
I – Delivery Team
Portfolio Prioritization
Purpose
Portfolio Prioritization creates an organizational focus on the top priorities and most valuable problems to be solved
This process is critical to optimizing time to realize Early ROI
Prioritize for Value
Validate Business Intent
Inputs
Outcome Hypothesis Writing
Kano Analysis
Cost of Delay Analysis
Activities
Conduct WSJF Analysis
Create Epic Roadmap
Prepare Epic Brief (Solution Approach)
Perform Cost of Delay Analysis
Assign order of magnitude relative estimates for value and effort using Rapid Estimation techniques
Validate the Epic Brief vision and constraints with key business stakeholders, Product Team members, and architects
Determine the values necessary to calculate WSJF (Business Value, Time Criticality, Risk Reduction, SWAG)
Validate the order of the Epics and adjust as needed, ensuring that the highest value epics have been identified
If necessary, identify potential Roadmap impacts of the Epic based on its priority and adjust the order of other Epics in Portfolio Prioritization to ensure the System of Delivery is giving focus to the most valuable priorities
Definition of Done
Stack-ranked order of Epics based on value
WSJF preliminary calculations performed
Order of magnitude estimates for value and effort determined
Validated that the highest value epics have been identified
Validated the epic brief and constraints
Epic Brief draft
RACI
R – Product Category Team, Product Line Team
A – Product Category Team
C – Product Manager, SMEs
I – Delivery Team
Intake
Purpose
Develop a shared understanding of the Epic vision, scope, and size from the Product Category Team
Confirm that the Epic is in scope for the Product Team
Inputs
Epic brief from the Product Category Team
User Journey Story from Product Category Team
High-Level Architecture
Activities
Validate the Epic is in scope for this team
Validate the Epic meets the Definition of Ready
Review/Update high-level named Features in the Epic Brief
Review/Identify Risks, Dependencies, Issues, and Assumptions
Definition of Done
Clear understanding of the Vision and Scope of the Portfolio Epic
Estimate of when the Epic can be started
List of Risks, Issues, Dependencies, and Assumptions
RACI
R – Product Line Team, Business Analyst
A – Product Owner
C – Delivery Team, SME’s, Stakeholders, Product Category Team
