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The Art of Business Value
Do you really understand what business value is? Information technology can and should deliver business value. But the Agile literature has paid scant attention to what business value means and how to know whether or not you are delivering it. This problem becomes ever more critical as you push value delivery toward autonomous teams and away from requirements tossed over the wall by business stakeholders. An empowered team needs to understand its goal! Playful and thought-provoking, The Art of Business Value explores what business value means, why it matters, and how it should affect your software development and delivery practices. More than any other IT delivery approach, DevOps (and Agile thinking in general) makes business value a central concern. This book examines the role of business value in software and makes a compelling case for why a clear understanding of business value will change the way you deliver software. This book will make you think deeply about not only what it means to deliver value but also the relationship of the IT organization to the rest of the enterprise. It will give you the language to discuss value with the business, methods to cut through bureaucracy, and strategies for incorporating Agile teams and culture into the enterprise. Most of all, this book will startle you into new ways of thinking about the cutting-edge of Agile practice and where it may lead."
160 pages, Paperback
First published April 7, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews
November 19, 2016
Ever since I've got involved with the tech industry, I suffer from this recurrent nightmare. The specific details vary: I might find myself in a doctor's office, airport lounge, a crowded train carriage or - in a particularly severe episode - taking a slow elevator in my office building. There are people around me, going about their daily business, saying their usual hi's, bye's, and how-are-you's. And then this guy appears out of nowhere. He sports olive-colored cargo pants and a black zip-up hoodie with a logo of an obscure startup. He wears glasses and stares intently around. Eventually, he starts talking to me. First, about the usual things - the weather, the traffic, the waiting time at the doctor's office. And then he steers the conversation towards some tech-focused topic - whether the new Mac Pro is an abomination, how Etherium will die within the next three months, or why Python's sorting algorithm is broken. And it's at this point that I start to get antsy and feel my heart beating faster. Because I know what's about to happen. The stranger continues to opinionate, but I no longer listen. I glance around hoping to find a discreet way to end this conversation. No luck. My body temperature continues to rise. I continue hearing fragments of developer wisdom pouring over me. Now, the first beads of sweat form on my forehead and soon the t-shirt sticks to my back. And then it begins. The stranger utters the word 'agile.' At first, it's just a lonely reference, what can be interpreted as an innocent attempt to add some sparkle to a dry sentence. And then another one. And another one. Technical agile terms start coming fast and thick. And before I know it, the stranger is delivering a full-blown sermon about the Agile Manifesto and the future of software development. At this point, my carefully-controlled anxiety breaks into a full-blown panic. I have seen it before, and I know that fits of agile proselytizing can go on for hours, sometimes days on end. Like zombies and AI bots, agile disciples seem to be immune to biological and psychological needs taxing mere mortals: pausing a sentence to breathe in, stopping a conversation for a toilet break, interrupting a workshop to grab a drink, or simply missing some alone-time with the Facebook feed. No, the agile disciples have no time for such indulgences. Quick, there is way too much important stuff you need to learn. User stories, cross-functional teams, acceptance tests, burndown charts, story points, feedback loops - the stranger continues to repeat his incantations, gesticulating wildly as he does so. His pupils are extended. His previously gray face is blush with color now. I am out of air. I try to make one last attempt to tear myself away from the conversation, but the whole room is swaying and the agile stranger follows me whenever I move. I gasp and then collapse on the floor. Everything goes black. Silence. Some time passes by. I regain my consciousness, but everything feels different now. I am looking at myself from above. I see emergency personnel enter the room and check the body for the signs of life. They say there is no pulse. But the agile man is still there. His lips are moving in a rapid sequence. What is it? What is he saying? I concentrate on reading his lips...I can't believe it. He is still talking about the units of value and how test-driven development will make everything alright. I scream, and then I wake up.
If you are wondering what this all has to do with the Art of Business Value, Mark Schwartz's book is essentially my nightmare condensed into 131 pages. Just like the stranger in my dream, Mark Schwartz begins with innocent questions - wondering about the traditional ways of measuring value and budget overruns on government projects - but with every page, he takes you deeper and deeper into the agile jungle, all the while reassuring you that the answer to the central question of the book is just around the corner. In retrospective, it felt like a sophisticated form of click-baiting to me.
The book is structured like a children's crime story, with each chapter yielding yet another piece of the final puzzle. Thus, Schwartz begins by picking apart the traditional measures of value - the return on investment (ROI) and net present value (NPV). Then goes on to discuss the importance of gathering feedback, respecting the corporate culture, and rethinking the role of IT within the modern enterprise. More criticism of ROI and NVP follows. And finally, the grand finale: Mark Schwartz uses the last thirty pages of the book to introduces nine strategies for maximizing the business value within the organization.
The Art of Business Value is a perplexing book. It's not only the fact that the pieces of the puzzle it lays out in front of you do not fit together. It also occupies a dubious intellectual ground. Mark Schwartz casts himself as a change agent preaching a more enlightened approach to building software. And then spends a whole chapter normalizing the evil of bureaucracy, one of the biggest obstacles in building better software. As he puts it, "it is easy to mistake [compliance] requirements for waste. Waste is whatever does not add value, and compliance requirements are not concerned with adding direct customer value <...> But what if those requirements actually are adding business value - just an indirect and well-disguised type of value?" Indeed, what if? But this line of argument allows justifying just about anything - from bacon-wrapped macaroni & cheese meatloaves to government-sponsored eugenics programs.
If you came across the Art of Business Value looking for practical insights, you are in for a sore disappointment. Mark Schwartz includes a few relevant anecdotes here and there, mostly from his experience of working at a small educational company, but these examples never rise to the level where they could illuminate the agile theory. What is even more baffling is how quickly the tone of the book shifts from a business treatise to a DevOps cheat sheet when it comes to actionable recommendations. "Create a highly automated, reliable, Continuous Delivery pipeline that allows for rapid feedback all the way through to the operation of features in production," rallies the author. "Treat the Enterprise Architecture as an asset with economic business value, both realized and latent," he adds a few pages later. "Let the teams self-organize product ownership." On and on goes the list.
If you did not notice by now, the Art of Business Value is not a book about the business value. It is a book about agile methodology, which goes to extreme lengths to obfuscate the concept of the business value. The point perfectly illustrated by the final paragraph of the book, where Mark Schwartz warns the reader: "understand that there is no magic formula for business value that only the business people know. Ultimately, it turns out that business value is what the business values, and that is that." 130 pages of agile-talk and then this.
There was one last thing I wanted to get off my chest. The Amazon reviews of the book invariably mention it being full of humor and creativity. As one reader puts it, "it is fun to read and thought-provoking." Let me assure you, if you are not a hardcore agile fanboy already, it is anything but fun. When given a chance to crack a joke, Mark Schwartz writes "Warning: this chapter contains graphic depictions of bureaucracy being applied to agility. You may come away wanting to produce burndown charts in triplicate." Talk about awkward humor.
If you are wondering what this all has to do with the Art of Business Value, Mark Schwartz's book is essentially my nightmare condensed into 131 pages. Just like the stranger in my dream, Mark Schwartz begins with innocent questions - wondering about the traditional ways of measuring value and budget overruns on government projects - but with every page, he takes you deeper and deeper into the agile jungle, all the while reassuring you that the answer to the central question of the book is just around the corner. In retrospective, it felt like a sophisticated form of click-baiting to me.
The book is structured like a children's crime story, with each chapter yielding yet another piece of the final puzzle. Thus, Schwartz begins by picking apart the traditional measures of value - the return on investment (ROI) and net present value (NPV). Then goes on to discuss the importance of gathering feedback, respecting the corporate culture, and rethinking the role of IT within the modern enterprise. More criticism of ROI and NVP follows. And finally, the grand finale: Mark Schwartz uses the last thirty pages of the book to introduces nine strategies for maximizing the business value within the organization.
The Art of Business Value is a perplexing book. It's not only the fact that the pieces of the puzzle it lays out in front of you do not fit together. It also occupies a dubious intellectual ground. Mark Schwartz casts himself as a change agent preaching a more enlightened approach to building software. And then spends a whole chapter normalizing the evil of bureaucracy, one of the biggest obstacles in building better software. As he puts it, "it is easy to mistake [compliance] requirements for waste. Waste is whatever does not add value, and compliance requirements are not concerned with adding direct customer value <...> But what if those requirements actually are adding business value - just an indirect and well-disguised type of value?" Indeed, what if? But this line of argument allows justifying just about anything - from bacon-wrapped macaroni & cheese meatloaves to government-sponsored eugenics programs.
If you came across the Art of Business Value looking for practical insights, you are in for a sore disappointment. Mark Schwartz includes a few relevant anecdotes here and there, mostly from his experience of working at a small educational company, but these examples never rise to the level where they could illuminate the agile theory. What is even more baffling is how quickly the tone of the book shifts from a business treatise to a DevOps cheat sheet when it comes to actionable recommendations. "Create a highly automated, reliable, Continuous Delivery pipeline that allows for rapid feedback all the way through to the operation of features in production," rallies the author. "Treat the Enterprise Architecture as an asset with economic business value, both realized and latent," he adds a few pages later. "Let the teams self-organize product ownership." On and on goes the list.
If you did not notice by now, the Art of Business Value is not a book about the business value. It is a book about agile methodology, which goes to extreme lengths to obfuscate the concept of the business value. The point perfectly illustrated by the final paragraph of the book, where Mark Schwartz warns the reader: "understand that there is no magic formula for business value that only the business people know. Ultimately, it turns out that business value is what the business values, and that is that." 130 pages of agile-talk and then this.
There was one last thing I wanted to get off my chest. The Amazon reviews of the book invariably mention it being full of humor and creativity. As one reader puts it, "it is fun to read and thought-provoking." Let me assure you, if you are not a hardcore agile fanboy already, it is anything but fun. When given a chance to crack a joke, Mark Schwartz writes "Warning: this chapter contains graphic depictions of bureaucracy being applied to agility. You may come away wanting to produce burndown charts in triplicate." Talk about awkward humor.
January 26, 2019
This book is hard to evaluate because it depends on the ideas of a lot of other writers, which it critiques, deeply.
But let me see if I can capture the flavor.
In DevOps and software development, for some 20+ years we have evolved a system of small teams. In one of the methodologies, Scrum, a small team's priorities are defined by a "product owner" who, using his or her understanding of "business values" makes decisions for the pipeline.
Schwartz persuasively shows how the existing literature dodges the idea of where this notion of "business value" comes from. Instead of defending a thesis on this, Schwartz patiently shows how existing ideas of ROI don't work very well. In particular, they are bad at understanding time, and neglect the idea that we are trying to situate our work in light of different scenarios that may come to pass.
There is a lot here that is about upsetting the apple cart. I'll note just two:
(1) Schwartz implies that in fact the only people who can really understand "business value" are the builders (I am vastly oversimplifying his point, but I think this is his core point of departure). They are the ones who are closest to the actual process by which the business has defined what is important -- you can, effectively, read these values right off of the "hairball" built by the enterprise.
(2) He suggests that product owners should be drawn from IT. Why? Because they have had to be deep in the values, since they've built the automation.
In short, a refreshing critique of much of the accepted wisdom of Scrum and agile, while still being profoundly committed to the values of agile.
I wouldn't recommend reading this book cold. You really need to have already read, for instance, Ken Schwaber's Agile Product Management with Scrum, or possibly Kent Beck's Extreme Programming Explained.
If your teams know something of doctrinaire Scrum, this could be a wonderful book for a reading group.
But let me see if I can capture the flavor.
In DevOps and software development, for some 20+ years we have evolved a system of small teams. In one of the methodologies, Scrum, a small team's priorities are defined by a "product owner" who, using his or her understanding of "business values" makes decisions for the pipeline.
Schwartz persuasively shows how the existing literature dodges the idea of where this notion of "business value" comes from. Instead of defending a thesis on this, Schwartz patiently shows how existing ideas of ROI don't work very well. In particular, they are bad at understanding time, and neglect the idea that we are trying to situate our work in light of different scenarios that may come to pass.
There is a lot here that is about upsetting the apple cart. I'll note just two:
(1) Schwartz implies that in fact the only people who can really understand "business value" are the builders (I am vastly oversimplifying his point, but I think this is his core point of departure). They are the ones who are closest to the actual process by which the business has defined what is important -- you can, effectively, read these values right off of the "hairball" built by the enterprise.
(2) He suggests that product owners should be drawn from IT. Why? Because they have had to be deep in the values, since they've built the automation.
In short, a refreshing critique of much of the accepted wisdom of Scrum and agile, while still being profoundly committed to the values of agile.
I wouldn't recommend reading this book cold. You really need to have already read, for instance, Ken Schwaber's Agile Product Management with Scrum, or possibly Kent Beck's Extreme Programming Explained.
If your teams know something of doctrinaire Scrum, this could be a wonderful book for a reading group.
January 25, 2021
The book starts with criticizing traditional ways of measuring business value (ROI, NPV).
Afterward, there is some explaining of why corporate culture is important, what are the responsibilities of the various roles in IT.
Finally, the last 15% of the book is dedicated to strategies for maximizing the business value within the organization.
The conclusion can be found in the last paragraph: "Ultimately, it turns out that business value is what the business values, and that is that" proved to me that I wasted my time and challenged my patience with this book.
Afterward, there is some explaining of why corporate culture is important, what are the responsibilities of the various roles in IT.
Finally, the last 15% of the book is dedicated to strategies for maximizing the business value within the organization.
The conclusion can be found in the last paragraph: "Ultimately, it turns out that business value is what the business values, and that is that" proved to me that I wasted my time and challenged my patience with this book.
March 1, 2021
Good and unorthodox (at first glance) take on the matter of "business value" in... well business. This term is permanently present within the Agile and Lean world for a long, long time, but the meaning of this terms is ambiguous at best. My personal experience also supports the notion, that it's a known elephant in the room, meaning that everyone seemed to ignore this ambiguity at least to some extent. The author of this book tries to answer the question what that actually is, what it should not be, and how to deal with that.
Very interesting read, despite the fact that I could find a couple of things I disagree with, or things that the author in my opinion did not understood deeply enough himself. But it doesn't matter - I recommend this book to everyone that have anything to do with the process of delivering that "business value" :)
Very interesting read, despite the fact that I could find a couple of things I disagree with, or things that the author in my opinion did not understood deeply enough himself. But it doesn't matter - I recommend this book to everyone that have anything to do with the process of delivering that "business value" :)
August 1, 2023
Could have been 20 pages with little value lost.
December 30, 2019
A short book with some interesting thoughts on business value and the role of the product owner, but ultimately it falls short of its goal of creating a definition of business value that can easily used to prioritize user stories/features etc.
A lot could have been left out, but then you'd probably be down to a long blogpost, rather than a thin book.
If you work as a product owner, or is someone else who needs a fuller view of what business value could be, I think it is worth reading this book, otherwise I'd give it a miss.
A lot could have been left out, but then you'd probably be down to a long blogpost, rather than a thin book.
If you work as a product owner, or is someone else who needs a fuller view of what business value could be, I think it is worth reading this book, otherwise I'd give it a miss.
October 5, 2020
At this book author examines difference between business value and customer value and try to find a better understanding of business value.
He believes:
1- The responsibility for understanding and interpreting business value cannot be placed solely in the hands of a product owner.
2- Business value is not a given, but rather that it must be discovered.
So all of the persons at the organization should participate to discover and define it. At the end he provides a definition for 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.
He believes:
1- The responsibility for understanding and interpreting business value cannot be placed solely in the hands of a product owner.
2- Business value is not a given, but rather that it must be discovered.
So all of the persons at the organization should participate to discover and define it. At the end he provides a definition for 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.
January 13, 2020
While perhaps offering more things to think about vs answers, Mark Schwarz is a talented author and hits on difficult topics surrounding business value, and exploring what it means to your organization. Topics around prioritization are covered in relation, but this book work well in helping you question and establishing a line of questioning to discover what business value means to you at the moment.
November 1, 2019
This is an infuriating book - he'll say something that's "obviously wrong", so wrong I'm tempted to return the book, how can he be so dumb.. and then after a few more paragraphs I'm agreeing, I'd never seen it that way before.
This guy regularly has an entirely unfamiliar perspective: unique, intelligent and delivered in a deliberately provocative way to ensure you remember the lesson he's giving.
This guy regularly has an entirely unfamiliar perspective: unique, intelligent and delivered in a deliberately provocative way to ensure you remember the lesson he's giving.
September 17, 2019
The content was deep and thorough. It certainly did challenged my views on business value in agile methodologies. However it's not a wise choice for someone new to agile product development, since there are a lot of dots to be connected. It took me one year and a half to come to a state to understand the definition of "business value" introduced in this book. The writer also is aware how broaden the content is, I believe, that's the reason why the reference section is detailed (and of coarse helpful to find your next reads).
The only thing I think the book come short of is at the end of the book where it addresses the solutions (or the opinions?) to bear in mind. I wish I could find more in-dept analysis, case studies and practical approaches. I mean the whole book was about having cross-functional teams (x-teams) but in the final chapter you could see the term DevOps team (wasn't it supposed to be handled by an x-team?) which was sort of disappointing. I understand that some information may be sensitive to be shared but at least some hints in an imaginary situation could have been helpful.
Don't get me wrong, you still need to read this book! it's gonna shatter your more naive (pardon my language, that's what happened to me) insights about agility.
The only thing I think the book come short of is at the end of the book where it addresses the solutions (or the opinions?) to bear in mind. I wish I could find more in-dept analysis, case studies and practical approaches. I mean the whole book was about having cross-functional teams (x-teams) but in the final chapter you could see the term DevOps team (wasn't it supposed to be handled by an x-team?) which was sort of disappointing. I understand that some information may be sensitive to be shared but at least some hints in an imaginary situation could have been helpful.
Don't get me wrong, you still need to read this book! it's gonna shatter your more naive (pardon my language, that's what happened to me) insights about agility.
March 16, 2020
Coming from a technology background, this book has been invaluable to understand some key concepts about business and how to make the marriage of the agile philosophy and “business” successful.
We are very much still in the middle of this transformation from a classical manufacturing approach to a lean development of business.
The key takeaway for me is that as a technologist it is my responsibility as much as everyone else to contribute to the creation of value for the business and this means that I cannot wait to be told what to do or expect for “product” to know it all. I am the business, I am the product.
We are very much still in the middle of this transformation from a classical manufacturing approach to a lean development of business.
The key takeaway for me is that as a technologist it is my responsibility as much as everyone else to contribute to the creation of value for the business and this means that I cannot wait to be told what to do or expect for “product” to know it all. I am the business, I am the product.
March 17, 2019
while reading the book I was having mixed feelings. about the way it was presented and about some of the content. reality check followed shortly after, which made me reconsider my views. several discussions I had recently were about going slow, focusing on technical debt and architecture among other aspects of software delivery. many times I faced the response that what I say is important, but we need to deliver value. bingo here it is. all said and covered in the book. lucky for me one of my challengers is reading the book right now. let's see if it helps us.
May 6, 2019
Excellent, irreverent, and often hilarious treatment of the nebulous subject of "business value" within agile mindsets and practices.
Agile leaders and practitioners often speak of "business value" several times each day, but we lack a consistent, enterprise-level operational definition of what it is and how to create and manage it.
Mark Schwartz, the Executive VP of Architecture at Amazon Web Services, strikes an excellent, no-nonsense blend of both rationalizing and operationalizing this vital thing called "business value".
Highly readable (about 5 hours) and enormously useful.
Agile leaders and practitioners often speak of "business value" several times each day, but we lack a consistent, enterprise-level operational definition of what it is and how to create and manage it.
Mark Schwartz, the Executive VP of Architecture at Amazon Web Services, strikes an excellent, no-nonsense blend of both rationalizing and operationalizing this vital thing called "business value".
Highly readable (about 5 hours) and enormously useful.
September 6, 2019
I LOVED the form: all those quotes from Descartes, Carroll, and others. And that instead of giving answers, first chapters are just making things more and more elusive, and are posing more and more questions; it was almost Holmesian. The book is really thought-provoking and made me rethink some quite unexpected subjects (such as bureaucracy). It also triggered some great discussions in the book club where we read it. However, the ending, and the overall message, felt like nothing new, nothing you wouldn't read in other books on DevOps, or, perhaps, more targeted for C-level managers.
February 26, 2020
If you are new to Agile or if you are looking for a prescriptive book with anwers this is not the one for you. If on the other hand you are like me, having tried to practice Agile practices for a few years, always feeling disconnected from "the business" and having always assumed that business value = customer value, you're in for a treat. I found it easy to read and thought provoking. Most importantly, the fundamental question it tackles is the single biggest challenge I found with Agile approaches, and trying to answer that is what can make Agile fit into an organization.
April 6, 2021
A good read on business value
The author makes a good case on why business value is not as obvious as many in the agile community make it to be. In this thought provoking book the author gives us the context on why business value is difficult to articulate and in some case needs to be discovered. I would recommend this book to anyone who has trouble articulating what ‘value’ the agile team should be delivering in every iteration. I give the book 4/5 stars because the end seems rushed with very many good ideas to try out but not enough room in the book to elaborate on them.
The author makes a good case on why business value is not as obvious as many in the agile community make it to be. In this thought provoking book the author gives us the context on why business value is difficult to articulate and in some case needs to be discovered. I would recommend this book to anyone who has trouble articulating what ‘value’ the agile team should be delivering in every iteration. I give the book 4/5 stars because the end seems rushed with very many good ideas to try out but not enough room in the book to elaborate on them.
June 12, 2023
A journey to answer the question, what is business value to IT? To the business?
The author is not afraid to ask questions that have long been taken for granted and even states at the end to drive the reader(listener) to question long held beliefs about business and business value.
With a bend at driving the team to discover and work towards delivering business value for themselves. Sadly this line of thinking is still controversial as teams are still adopting faux-agile methodologies while still maintaining waterfall bureaucracies.
The author is not afraid to ask questions that have long been taken for granted and even states at the end to drive the reader(listener) to question long held beliefs about business and business value.
With a bend at driving the team to discover and work towards delivering business value for themselves. Sadly this line of thinking is still controversial as teams are still adopting faux-agile methodologies while still maintaining waterfall bureaucracies.
May 1, 2019
A short book about how to discover and shape business value through IT. The author explores multiple topics like Agile Frameworks, DevOps, Business Value and Prioritization, CIO role, and enterprise architecture, including values and principles. All these should be accounted when planning and delivering business value and -more importantly- on how we shape and build our technical teams in the modern enterprise.
Recommended as extended read from other Mark Schwartz’s books.
Recommended as extended read from other Mark Schwartz’s books.
June 16, 2019
Denne her bog om "business value" skal læses i en agile software kontekst. Udenfor vil den næppe give meget mening, da den adresserer det lidt vage værdibegreb der er i luften når man slynger om sig med "deliver business value" og forretningsværdi mig her og der i softwareland.
Jeg kunne virkelig godt lide den, da den flyttede mig et stykke videre og gav mig nogle gode pointers. Men den er også lidt rodet og irriterende.
Stadig værd at læse :)
Jeg kunne virkelig godt lide den, da den flyttede mig et stykke videre og gav mig nogle gode pointers. Men den er også lidt rodet og irriterende.
Stadig værd at læse :)
March 31, 2021
I ended up reading three of Mark Schwartz's books in short succession, starting with The art of bureucracy, A seat at the table and finally The Art of Business Value. I would not have thought this during the first chapters of the first book. Schwartz's style of writing and the heavy use of unrelated quotes was downright annoying at first, but grew on me gradually.
Overall these books offered a different, and useful, point of view on the topics discussed.
Overall these books offered a different, and useful, point of view on the topics discussed.
June 6, 2019
It really makes you question what you learn and take for granted when applying Scrum as is into an IT organization. The book is specially useful for us, IT people moving to management or business roles that sometimes find it hard to change the way they identify value generating activities for the company.
January 28, 2020
Very good questions and thoughts. I like the approach of getting a book to raise questions instead of prescribing solutions.
1st half poses a good case. 2nd half, feels more of a filler.
The last chapter has a good summary of thoughts to try out and experiment. Well done.
Hesitating about recommending it. Maybe I need to re-read it as it has a good size.
1st half poses a good case. 2nd half, feels more of a filler.
The last chapter has a good summary of thoughts to try out and experiment. Well done.
Hesitating about recommending it. Maybe I need to re-read it as it has a good size.
July 1, 2020
Mr. Schwartz provides an excellent narrative of just how difficult it is to determine business value. It is part number, part art, and as solid as stress ball. Not sure I want to be a Product Owner entrusted with the responsibility of working with the business to identify the full scope of business value for any initiative.
November 30, 2022
Short and sweet, but still with enough good examples and anecdotes to be useful. The only way they could add more to this book would be a bunch more theoretical stuff, but as they point out, it's not very common to find organizations who are applying the "DevOps mentality" to defining and measuring business value. Hopefully that changes as time goes on.
November 17, 2017
The last chapter is well worth the entire book. But be prepared to grind most of the way. Perhaps it's simply me that is not familiar or does not enjoy the topics presented during most of the book? Maybe. Still, the very last chapter is where the magic happens.
May 31, 2020
Excellent pointers on enhancing Business Value
The crux of what encompasses a Business Value is very well laid out in the last chapter. It's good to go through the last chapter first to get an overview and then follow through the book from the first.
The crux of what encompasses a Business Value is very well laid out in the last chapter. It's good to go through the last chapter first to get an overview and then follow through the book from the first.
February 4, 2021
Really useful to introspection about own experiences. The more you know the scenarios Mark refers, the more advantages you can take.
Anyway, at the end there is still a strong incompletion feeling. I may missed the point of course, but I think there could be something else.
Anyway, at the end there is still a strong incompletion feeling. I may missed the point of course, but I think there could be something else.
February 4, 2021
I didn't have expectations before reading this book, but anyway I'm disappointed with what I've got. One good, last chapter is to little to give more stars, rest is rather theoretical, overall material to think about different aspects of business value rather than to apply it at work.
November 26, 2021
Thought it was a good book to sort through various topics on agile development and what is valuable to product delivery. Found it to be a good balance to topics read from various Agile team roles, The Mythical Man Month, and The Principles of Product Delivery Flow
January 10, 2023
Solid, but wordy
There’s a lot of great content and thought-provoking concepts in this book, but it’s tough to read too much in a sitting. The content is worth getting through the verbose writing, and I’ve recommended this to many of my colleagues.
There’s a lot of great content and thought-provoking concepts in this book, but it’s tough to read too much in a sitting. The content is worth getting through the verbose writing, and I’ve recommended this to many of my colleagues.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 51 reviews