Calculating Cost of Delay with Marty Bradley

This is the second interview in a series we are doing on Cost of Delay. The first interview, where Jim Hayden provided an overview of Cost of Delay can be found here: http://bit.ly/2lUDWFR

In Part 2 of the series, Marty Bradley explains how Cost of Delay actually works. During the interview we discuss things like Weighted Shorted Job First (WSJF), how to determine relative Business Value of different features or projects and how to evaluate that value against different factors like risk.

During the interview Marty refers to two different graphics that help explain Cost of Delay. Here are links to the two graphic files*:

• WSJF Formula
• WSJF Table

* These graphics are based on examples Marty was referencing in the interview. The originals can be found here.

Show Notes

00:08 Interview Begins
00:34 Background on Marty
01:47 Intro to the topic
01:54 It’s okay to be confused about what Cost of Delay actually is
02:36 Dave “mansplains” the basics of Cost of Delay
03:05 Why people are using Cost of Delay to prioritize work
05:00 Weighted Shortest Job First (WSJF) (see link above)
05:49 Using a table to calculate WSJF (see link above)
06:19 Using relative sizing to determine User Business Value and the other WSJF factors
06:44 What is “Business Value”?
08:39 How relative sizing works
09:10 How to use the table to get guidance on prioritization
11:07 The actual value of Cost of Delay may not be mathematically quantifiable, and that’s ok because it’s all about relative sizing
13:00 Be careful about bias and gaming the scores
13:24 Using the iPhone 7/Apple Bluetooth Headphones example
14:45 Adding columns to the table so that it works best for you
16:27 Deciding what to do first, second and what to kill
16:40 WSJF – a simple explanation
17:18 The formula for determining WSJF
17:44 Examples of how WSJF can help
19:50 Resources you can use to learn more about Cost of Delay
22:49 Understanding and measuring “value”
23:18 Are we getting smarter about understanding value or just delaying understanding it?
23:45 Key indicators of value and the importance of smaller batch size
25:32 Getting in touch with Marty
25:50 Podcast Close

Links from the Podcast

• An Overview of Cost of Delay with Jim Hayden
  https://liminalarc.co/podcast/an-overview-of-cost-of-delay-with-jim-hayden-and-dave-prior/
• The Principles of Product Development Flow by Don Reinertsen
  http://amzn.to/2m6u0xL
• Black Swan Farming
  http://blackswanfarming.com

Contacting Marty:

You can reach Marty:

• On the LeadingAgile site
• Email: marty.bradley@leadingagile.com
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martybradley/

Contacting Dave

You can reach Dave:

• On the LeadingAgile site
• On Twitter at twitter.com/mrsungo
• On his personal site at: drunkenpm.net

Feedback/Questions

If you have comments on the podcast, or have questions for the LeadingAgile coaches that you’d like to have addressed in a future episode of LeadingAgile’s SoundNotes, you can reach Dave at dave.prior@leadingagile.com

LeadingAgile CSM and CSPO Classes

For information on LeadingAgile’s upcoming public CSM and CSPO classes, please go to: liminalarc.co/our-gear/training/

Use the discount code: LA_Podcast to receive a 15% discount on the class.