siliconindia | | May 20198n the olden days, a business person would decide what should be built, a coder would code it, a user would use it (maybe), and then an analyst would try to figure-out what happened. Today, high-performing companies charter interdisciplinary teams to iteratively improve outcomes in a particular area using agile. That's a bit abstract; so here's a more tangible view of what it means in practice: That's a testable description of agile and you'll know it's working if: a) The team is using continuous design to improve the percentage of features that see high engagementb) The team is using agile to increase their velocity in terms of feature outputc) The team is using DevOps to create a more continuous pipeline and release to users more frequentlyWhere do analytics come into play? Not at the end, and not after the fact. A high-functioning team is using agile analytics to bring focus and coherence to their work across design, coding, and delivery. How do you know if you're getting to agile analytics? I've observed seven focal points with teams that have a high-functioning practice: 1. All Ideas are Testable: When I asked him about his company's practice of agile, a CTO friend of mine told me: `You know; you can't just take a nine month idea, slice it into two week iterations, and get agile'. We're bad at making our ideas testable. I've variously been a founder, CEO, advisor, and investor for decades, and when I get a new idea, I still start with `Wouldn't it be cool if'. And that's okay, but not once you decide to develop that idea. At that point, render your idea testable. I like if the formulation `If we do something for some specific persona or segment, then they will respond in some specific, measurable way'. For example, if we ran a company that fixes air conditioning systems and decided it would be cool to make an app for our field technicians, we might render something like `If we build an app for the field technicians, then they will use it and it will increase their billable hours'. 2. Big Ideas Get Tested: This is the essence of Lean Startup. In order to minimize waste, ideas get tested with product proxies (MVPs) before they're candidates for being built. And a lot of companies have a team off somewhere doing something Lean Startup-ish. But do the big ideas get tested? The ones that the company is investing the big bucks in and hoping will drive its organic growth? That's the important question.AGILE ANALYTICS FOR THE WINBy Prof. Alex Cowan, Batten Fellow & General Faculty, Darden School of Business, University of VirginiaIin my opinionA serial entrepreneur, Prof. Alex has over two decades of experience during which he has worked across diverse industries with companies such as Scout Electromedia, SOMA Networks, BroadSoft, and Singularity Networks, and even founded three companies.Prof. Alex Cowan
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