The Art of Business Value

I was quite excited when I saw the title of this book. As I started to read the first few chapters it became evident the style the author was using. He would examine a particular area to see if that's how we could determine value and then summarize with no that's not where we can look for business value. He would continue this chapter after chapter and then finally summarize in the last paragraph of the last chapter that while we've looked to many areas for business value ultimately business value is what the Business values. I think he could have summarized that in a Tweet and saved me a few hours.I did look at the review when I first bought this and I ignored the 1-Stars and looked at the 4 and 5 Stars. Not sure what book they read to give it that high of a rating.

Business value, the north star of Agile, Lean and DevOps champions, is often more difficult to determine than one would imagine. This book takes the reader on a journey to discover that value while along the way, creating helpful mental models, challenging preconceived notions and proposing some creative ways to transform an organization.The author does a great treatment of ROI (Return on Investment – does anyone ever really measure that?), NPV (Net Present Value), MVA (Market Value Added) and SVA (Shareholder Value Added). I especially enjoyed the humorous practical example that revealed a surprising truth that acquiring an MBA can easily have a negative NPV (in other words, a bad investment!) So save your money and pay attention to the author’s "four-paragraph MBA" (p. 20) that unpacks the main two principles learned in an MBA: 1) There is time value of money and 2) A business venture needs a sustainable competitive advantage.Legacy IT architecture and bureaucracy are often considered negatives and obstacles to progressive competitive relevance but the author brings a refreshing perspective on the “value” of that complex hairball of legacy and rules and the right way to polish and transform them.On Agile…“The purpose of an Agile team is to self-organize and meet the underlying business need in the best way possible, often by cutting through the bureaucracy.” (p 55)On DevOps…“The DevOps model…looks to break down the silos that have resulted from technical specialization over the last few decades. But the DevOps spirit goes further looking to eliminate the conflicting incentives of organizational silos and the inhumane behaviors that can result from those conflicting incentives.” (p 48)On Bureaucracy…“Bureaucracy delivers business value. Just sometimes not enough.” (p 59)…”developers are bureaucrats by nature. We have a tendency to solve problems by creating standard processes rather than by relying on human judgment.” (p 54) “The pipeline is an automated bureaucracy: it applies its rules in a rigorous, unemotional way, sine ira et studio. That does not mean that the software development process is unemotional; it means that the tools are unemotional and the passion is brought to the process by the people.” (p 105)And on Business Value…“Business value is a hypothesis held by the organization’s leadership as to what will best accomplish the organization’s ultimate goals or desired outcomes.” (p 90)I highly recommend this book to IT leaders, digital executives, strategic managers, and anyone seeking to make their organization more agile, effective, relevant, competitive and humane.

A great framework on how to define business value, tailored to YOUR organization, which makes perfect sense since all organizations are different (think non-profit vs. gov't vs commercial etc). Obviously this culminates in a DevSecOps / CICD Pipeline recommendation, but the groundwork in the first 70% of the book has utility for non-technology types too. This is a fun read - Mark does a great job keeping it interesting but be warned: this thing covers a lot of ground and will open up a ton of questions for the reader.

Fascinating blend of theory and tactical application that hits head on a tragically neglected core topic of agile: business value.Us agile transformation leaders talk about BV constantly, but the fact that we all have different definitions of it has become The Elephant In The Room.We owe Mark for tackling this, explaining it through relevant lenses and frameworks, and giving us all an excellent map to use as we define and manage business value for ourselves.A must read for agile practitioners and leaders!

Author explains business value which exists in many ways; and provides some ways to discover + delivery value at business uses.Impressive with customer value may be not business values; and the way new CIO must be act as leader and answer business (CEO) question. It's very worth.Thanks for sharing experienced of Author.

A very well crafted piece on the perceptions of business value. This book illustrates how to understand the meaning of business value as well as enable your business sinless through this understanding. Super work.

If you are new to software development, this might be a good book to demistify the idea of business value. Otherwise, I did not find any deep insight, mostly a collection of points about the IT organization.

I enjoyed reading this book. Mark described well the way to link business into DevOps wold and clarifying terms like Product owner, Business Value, Culture with his real experiences. As his last word in-the book: "Tere is no hardline between Dev and Business team " but virtually there is , it is all about us in the same organization for same business goal. Liked Mark!

Mark explains with a refreshing view the modern approach to business value. It's teams that ultimately delivery business value. To do so, they need to understand and be able to elicit business value. This is not a role that is exclusively responsibility or a product owner. Teams should not be shielded from the discovery and definition of business value. They should contribute to its definition and delivery. Finally, the role of the CIO is to establish practices that build of the organisation memory, listen to the feedback from the teams and allow the practices to evolve over time. I've also found valuable the concept that what Agile purists might define as waste might actually represent value for the organisation. The goal is to understand what value means for the organisation and leanify the processes and procedures that allow teams to deliver it.

Ok yes maybe it could have been a little shorter but:Once you get to the last third of the book it is full of suggestions, thought-provoking comments and personal challenges to you as a technology leader, management consultant or business leader who depends on technology.Written by a CIO with a sense of humour that has no issue with casting dispersion upon his role or how It is viewed or views others; this book leads on a careful exploration of what is value, what is technology and what then is the value of technology to a business. Why, when and how do you know that what you are doing matters? Top ten book for technology management.

In software I've seen numerous times highly skill developers working with business analysts to build software. The developer pat themselves on the back, basking in the glory of a new release using the latest technologies. But these have oftentimes failed to solve the key objective - help the end user perform their tasks easier and more efficient. This book is very insightful in helping a team deliver what they are supposed to. A very enjoyable read.

Really an inspired book. I loved the honest and humble way the author takes you to a journey to the root meaning of business value. I now also have a better understanding of the CIO role in an agile organisation. Recommended to product owners, scrum masters and actually everyone working in IT

Only 1/3 of the way through but an excellent, thought provoking and very easy read