The Business Value of Software

Description

Software provides most organizations with key competitive advantages; however, IT is often considered a major cost center rather than a valued investment for an organization. Agile and lean techniques have helped to revolutionize software development, but they don’t assess the value of these initiatives. This book argues that software development must be organized, managed and measured to maximize the flow of business value, end-to-end. It offers valuable advice and examples for identifying value and making it visible to all stakeholders (business and IT) in order to drive the decisions that will increase the flow of software value and drive greater business and economic benefits. Content: Cover Half Title Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgments Author Acronyms 1: Why Software Value? Why Not Information Technology Value More Generally? Who Should Care about the Business Value of Software? What Is the Business Value of Software? Impact of Perspective on Business Value Software Value Sidestep Software Value Life Cycle What Role Does Time Play in the Business Value of Software? A More Sophisticated Definition of the Business Value of Software What Do We Mean by Software Value as an Asset and Software Value as a Flow? Current Approach to Managing the Business Value of Software as an AssetFinancial Perspective Software Maintenance Perspective Portfolio Management Perspective Current Approach to Maximizing the Flow of Software Business Value What Is Lost When Software Value Is Invisible? 2: Six Things the C-Suite Should Know about Software Value Chief Executive Officer The Board Chief Financial Officer Chief Marketing Officer Chief Digital Officer Chief Information Officer Lenses Summary 3: Make the Business Value of Software Visible Why Visible? Why Learning? Why Status? How Visible? Information RadiatorsValue of Problem Status Visualization Value of Process Status Visualization Value of Solution Status Visualization Summary 4: Forms of Software Value Financial Forms of Software Business Value Software as an Asset or an Expense GASB Statement 42 How to Capitalize Agile? The Dark Side of Software Capitalization and Amortization? Software as Revenue Non-Financial Forms of Software Value Software Reputation Technical Debt Data and Information Open Source Summary 5: Establishing Software Value Strategies Lean Software Development. Removal of WastePull Not Push Monitor and Control Variation in the Process but Not in the Inputs Reinertsen' s Principles for Optimizing Value Flow through Product Development Kanban A Portfolio Management Kanban System Cost of Delay and Weighted Shortest Job First Connecting Up the Dots between Portfolio Management and Development Teams End-to-End Business Value Orphan Stories SAFe Portfolio Layer and Software Value SAFe Value Stream Layer and Software Value Summary 6: Business Value from Products and Programs Product or Program? Similarities between Products and Programs. Differences between Products and ProgramsSoftware Value for Product/Program with Enabling Portfolio Strategy Value Streams Value Stream Mapping and Analysis Software Value for Product/Program without Enabling Portfolio Strategy Product/Program Value in Waterfall Organizations Product/Program Value in Agile Organizations Organizations Using Agile and Waterfall Contributions to Maximizing Software Value at the Product/Program Level Summary 7: Establishing Software Value Tactics The Why and How of Queue Management for Software Development Waterfall and Queue Management.