Agility crept into the management discourse without most of us knowing what it meant. On the surface, of course, it seems quite simple and an attractive concept. But how do we achieve it? Indeed, what exactly are we pursuing?
With over 70% of project failures being attributed to requirements gathering, why are we still using the same techniques and expecting different results? Requirements need to be discovered before they can be "gathered"--and this requires a robust approach to analyzing the business needs.
VersionOne recently released the results of their State of Agile Development Survey for 2012, and once again it proved to be an interesting indicator of Agile adoption and trends.
Benchmarking determines where the enterprise is in relation to performing activities with "best-of-breed" or world-class companies. It measures the performance or the degree of success that has been realized in comparison to other companies for a given activity, value stream, or other factors of interest. These measures then become the basis for analysis and redesign.
A technique used for estimating the direct (tangible) or indirect (intangible) favorable results of an action taken. Tangible benefits can be measured in terms of their direct monetary value, such as increase in revenue; intangible benefits are the favorable results that may not be measurable in dollar terms, such as improved morale of the employees, but can be estimated using a qualitative approach.