BVPs, SPs, Fun, and the Game - Pt 1

March 25, 2022

We mentioned this Agile Carolinas session in an earlier post. And some description. Here we explain more.

To Start

Let’s start with Game, because that’s what it’s all about.

Well, more clearly, it is about a wonderful life, for the Team and for the Customers. And everyone else.

That means we must deliver a wonderful product, that the customers are happier with, and with a good time trade-off (they always want it yesterday).

But to do this well, we use the Game idea to help us become better faster.

More creative and innovative.

More fun for the Team.

More engaged and motivated, and hence more productive.

But again, a lot of the Game idea is to use it to learn to become better.

Business Value Points

BVPs should be a widely known idea, but is not.

Business Value Points. A way of guessing at the relative business value of a Story, when compared to a Reference Story.

The Mechanics – in short

The 4 Business Stakeholders and the Product Owner choose a Reference Story, that they think has the highest business value in their Product Backlog.

I recommend they define BV as “wow factor”. What makes the customer excited.

They give the Reference Story a value of 100 BVPs.

Then the 5 of them vote on the BVPs for every other card (story), in comparison.

Using the Fibonacci cards.

If the votes are wider than 3 consecutive Fibonacci numbers, then the two extremes must justify their votes.

Hopefully revealing new information, facts, logic, etc.

In the next round of voting, each person can change their vote.

Once we hit 3 consecutive Fibonacci numbers, then we add up all cards and divide by the number of voters (5 in this case). Round to the nearest integer. And that’s the BVP number for the new card.

We vote on all the cards (say, 50 cards at the very beginning) in about 60-75 minutes.

Why waste time voting when we (at the beginning) know so little?

This enables us to prioritize our stupidity about business value.

Indeed, this is often seen as the biggest “win” from doing the BVP voting. We see clearly that we do NOT agree. And we see clearly that we “know” BV less well than we thought. So, we are inclined to learn. And we can prioritize our learning. In simple terms, where we know the least.

Note this is called Priority Poker. A game itself. We make it fun. Everyone talks and learns. All engaged, each person absorbing information.

Five heads are better than one.

Story Points

Story points. Relative effort compared to a reference story. Relative cost as well, although a bit less clearly (there can be other costs). Relative delay as well.

This is a widely known idea. Although not everyone agrees with it.

If it is approached with fun, it becomes a different game.

The Mechanics – very similar

I recommend that the SM and an outside technical expert (who knows your team) choose the Reference Story for effort. A small one. Ideally about 8 ideal hours of work (one ideal day). The 8 ideal hours is NOT mentioned to the Developers. That information does NOT help them.

They give the Reference Story a value of 1 SP.

The 5 Developers then vote on effort in a very similar way.

So, the Developers (5 of them) vote on the SPs for every other card (story), in comparison.

Using the Fibonacci cards.

If the votes are wider than 3 consecutive Fibonacci numbers, then the two extremes must justify their votes. Must explain.

Hopefully revealing new information, facts, logic, etc.

In the next round of voting, any person can change their vote.

Once within 3 consecutive Fibonacci numbers, then we add up all cards and divide by the number of voters (5 in this case). Round to the nearest integer. And that’s the SP number for the new card.

We vote on all the cards (say, 50 cards at the very beginning) in about 60-75 minutes.

Why waste time voting when we (at the beginning) know so little?

This enables us to prioritize our stupidity about effort.

What are the two biggest wins from this? One. People have shared the most important knowledge that they have quickly. And where/when needed. Two. We can identify where we’re stupid (as a Team), where we need to learn the most. We can prioritize our stupidity. Fun to say, a bit humbling, but useful if we take action, get smarter, improve the votes, and become more successful as a Team.

Note this is called Planning Poker. Poker is a game itself. We make it fun. Everyone talks and learns. Because they are engaged, adults learn and remember more. This is very useful.

Five heads are better than one.

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See more in Part 2. (link to be added)