Agile Today: Interview with Jim Highsmith

I recently read Jim Highsmith's interview in Gantthead. It is thought provoking, full of insights and a must read for people serious about Agile. 

I have given below a question and Jim's response.


Q. Customer value is obviously critical, but maximizing it sometimes feels in conflict with getting things done. If you had one piece of advice for those trying to maximize value in a tough environment, what would that be?

I would go back to two of the four things that I think adaptive leaders need to do:

• Deliver value to the customer
• Do less to deliver that value

One of the things traditional approaches assume is that you’re successful if you’ve delivered all of the scope in whatever you’ve defined. There have been studies that say that 60% of all software developed is rarely or never used. So the measure really needs to be, “Have I delivered value to the customer today?” not “Have I delivered everything in scope?” Then you might ask the question, “What offers value now?” Then you can grow that value over time.
So the Lean idea of doing more with less, combined with an Agile approach, really produces more meaningful results.

Complete interview is  available here.