Pre-Requisites
Inverting The Axis
If we take an example project, and ignoring reality for a moment have each of the four key stages, analysis, design, development and test take equal amounts of time. If after 50% of the project lifecycle we examine what we have delivered, what value we have released such that the customer can start realising that value
In our traditional waterfall project, we have released exactly 0% of business value. We may have the most wonderful design ( on paper ), we may have the most comprehensive set of requirements analysed to the nth degree in a 400 page document, and validated through a multitude of excel spreadsheet based matrices, but we still cannot provide the customer with anything they can actually use.
If the project was cancelled at this stage, our customer would have absolutely nothing to show for the project apart from a lot of dead trees, however ......
If we invert the timeline axis and instead, after 50% of the project lifecycle, look to have delivered 50% of the application. This also means that after 20% of the life cycle we have delivered 20% and after 80% we have delivered 80% of the application.
Now, after every increment of the project we can provide something to the customer that they can possibly use to realise a percent of the overall value of the project. In hard cash figures, this can slash the time it takes for a project to begin paying for itself and turn a profit by up to 50%.
Next Steps