Unlocking Business Agility with Evidence-Based Management: Satisfy Customers and Improve Organizational Effectiveness

Leverage Evidence-Based Management, a scientific method, to enable organizations to achieve goals under conditions of uncertainty.

 

Organizations often believe in the certainty of their plans and see every deviation from the plan as a sign of failure. They view the organization as a machine for creating and executing plans instead of looking at it as a responsive organism, attentive to the changes in its environment. In a world of uncertainties, organizations need to be capable of reinventing themselves every day based on new information.

 

In Unlocking Business Agility with Evidence-Based Management, authors Patricia Kong, Todd Miller, Kurt Bittner, and Ryan Ripley use the framework developed by Scrum.org called Evidence-Based Management (EBM). EBM is an empirical approach that helps organizations use experimentation and rapid feedback to progress toward goals. This path is not always obvious or straightforward, but that is a benefit: in a complex and changing world, the path toward goals will always be uncertain. EBM helps organizations use new data to adapt their plan toward their goals.

 

Throughout the book, the authors present stories and experiences that illustrate how EBM can be applied to set better goals and then leverage empiricism to achieve those goals using feedback, learning, and evidence. This definitive guide will help your organization identify its true purpose, improve its ability to reach goals, and build a culture of trust, transparency, and growth.

• Clarify goals and demonstrate value, success, and progress using agile metrics
• Progress toward goals in uncertain and rapidly changing circumstances
• Embrace empiricism and experimentation to find solutions for complex problems
• Find real-world anonymized case studies on how to articulate goals and measurements in a way that fosters self-management and business agility

 

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Inhaltsverzeichnis:

Foreword by Ken Schwaber     xi

Foreword by Dave West      xv

Preface      xix

Introduction      xxvii

 

Chapter 1: Finding Purpose      1

Rediscovering Purpose      3

     Goals      4

     How Goals and Measures Influence Behaviors      7

How to Rediscover Purpose      10

Closing Satisfaction Gaps Creates Value      11

     Customer-Focused Goals Enable Autonomy and Purpose      14

Improving Strategic Goals      17

     Ask Why? to Uncover the Real Objective      17

     Refocus Internal Goals on What Customers Need to Experience      19

     Think About How You Will Measure Progress Toward Your Vision      20

What to Watch For      21

Moving Forward      22

 

Chapter 2: Using Empiricism to Progress Toward Goals      23

Understanding Value      25

Progressing Toward Goals in a Series of Small Steps      27

     Taking Small Steps Toward Goals      29

Steering Toward Goals      32

     Adapting Goals      34

     Adapting Tactics      36

The Real Purpose of Goals Is to Foster Conversations      36

Losing the Plot and Finding It Again      37

What to Watch For      38

Moving Forward      39

 

Chapter 3: Becoming (More) Effective      41

Value Is Essential, but Frequency Matters Too      42

     It Is Not Delivery Speed That Is Important; It Is Feedback Speed      44

     While Focusing on Speed, Do Not Lose Sight of Value      45

Speed Is Not Enough; Teams Must Also Be Effective      46

Too Many Things at Once      48

Where Should Teams Start?      50

Beware the Efficiency Trap      51

Balancing Speed and Effectiveness      52

Cutting Corners: Sometimes Necessary, Sometimes Fatal      53

What to Watch For      55

Moving Forward      56

 

Chapter 4: Managing and Overcoming Expectations      59

People Who Largely Seek to Validate Expectations Are Often Disappointed      60

Transforming Bad News into Just News     61

     Letting Go of Expectations      64

     Expectations Can Be Stubbornly Held      65

Replacing Meeting Expectations with Seeking Goals      68

Stakeholders and Transparency      69

How to Define and Categorize Stakeholders