Use Demos to Build Trust

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Topics: Agile, Estimating, Requirements Management, Stakeholder Management, Strategy, ProjectsAtWork

In our first article — "Stay Agile with Discovery" (May 11, 2016)— we discussed how to use a discovery project to show a non-agile customer or sponsor the benefits of going agile. Now we will focus on building trust with a client who is ready to consider agile approaches.

After the discovery project, Martha was ready to use AgileSoft again for more development. (Recall: Cindy is the Product Owner for AgileSoft’s clients, and Bob is Cindy’s contact at Acme, representing Martha’s interests.) As Martha reviewed the first set of deliverables, she realized she had to define requirements for many small projects to get “everything” she wanted. She now realizes that “everything” changed over the course of all the little projects. She liked the idea of release criteria guiding their decisions. But what if she wants to change the release criteria?

Martha also thought about all the time (and money) Cindy’s team spent to estimate each monthly release. Martha wondered if it was possible to not estimate so often and still have a good idea of what Cindy could deliver. Martha realized she had asked Cindy’s team to estimate because of the way she wanted to work. She also realized she wanted more flexibility about what Cindy’s team would deliver on a regular basis.

Martha felt safe when her vendors …

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