Are you lost in a sea of business requirements? Are you struggling to articulate the business value of your technology project? Do your user stories lack context? Is there a lack of alignment between your delivery teams and business stakeholders? If you answered yes to one or more of these questions then this session is for you! Impact Mapping is a facilitation technique that brings technologists and senior stakeholders together meaningfully to explore options. It exposes assumptions and helps shape a path from “We want everything” to “We want to to make these impacts in this order” avoiding the trap of solutions looking for problems. This session provides an overview of how to create an Impact Map, share some real world examples of how impact mapping has helped support the delivery of software products and even provide an opportunity for you to start using the tool! Presented at Agile Australia 2014. You can access a video of the presentation at: http://bit.ly/ImpactMapping_InfoQ

1. Em Campbell-Pretty
Partner, Context Matters
@PrettyAgile
www.prettyagile.com
au.linkedin.com/in/ejcampbellpretty/
em@contextmatters.com.au
Impact Mapping:
Making an Impact over
Shipping Software
Agile Australia
18th June 2014

2. Build the Right Thing
Vs.
Build the Thing Right

3. “There is surely nothing quite so useless
as doing with great efficiency what should
not be done at all.”
– Peter Drucker

5. Impact Mapping is a
strategic planning
technique. It prevents
organisations from
getting lost while
building products and
delivering projects…
- Gojko Adzic

7. HOW I DISCOVERED
IMPACT MAPPING

8. February 2013
Can you help?

9. March 2013
Who is the Product Owner?

10. April 2013
How do we expedite delivery?

11. May 2013
Here is the BRD….

12. June 2013
Can we report data that has
been deleted by robots?

13. July 2013
You need to accelerate delivery!

14. August 2013
What do you mean you won’t
deliver everything in FY14?

15. September 2013
Here is the list of priorities,
we added a few extra features…

16. October 2013
Has anyone seen the PO?

17. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/trancemist/361935363/

18. WAYNE:
LET ME TELL YOU
ABOUT IMPACT
MAPPING….

22. November 2013
Workshop #1

23. SETTING THE STAGE

24. THE GOAL:
Why are we doing this?

25. Source: http://gojko.net/2013/02/13/the-february-revolution/

26. • Why are we doing this?
GETTING TO THE GOAL – ASK:

27. • Identify why the product will be useful
• Explore the problem to be solve
GETTING TO THE GOAL- DO:

28. • Define the scope
• Provide the solution
GETTING TO THE GOAL- DON’T

29. GOOD GOALS ARE S.M.A.R.T.
Specific
Measurable
Action-Oriented
Realistic
Timely

30. PIXAR PITCH
• Once upon a time there was ___.
• Every day, ___.
• One day ___.
• Because of that, ___.
• Because of that, ___.
• “ “ “
• “ “ “
• Until finally ___.
• And ever since then ___.
http://www.prettyagile.com/2014/06/pitching-pixar-pitch.html

31. THE ACTORS:
Who can effect the outcome?

32. • Who can produce the desired effect?
• Who can obstruct it?
• Who are the consumers or users of our product?
• Who will be impacted by it?
GETTING TO THE ACTORS – ASK:

33. • Identify who will derive value
• Consider
– Primary Actors whose goals are fulfilled
– Secondary Actions who provide services
– Off stage actors, who have influence but do not benefit
or provide services
• Be specific
GETTING TO THE ACTORS – DO:

34. BRAINSTORMING ACTORS

35. FOCUSING IN

36. December 2013
Workshop #2

37. THE IMPACTS:
How should our actors’
behavior change?

38. • How should our actors’ behavior change?
• How can they help us to achieve the goal?
• How they can obstruct or prevent us from
succeeding?
GETTING TO THE IMPACTS - ASK:

39. • Focus on desired changes in business activities
• Show how the activity is different to what is
currently possible
• Consider negatives and positives
• Think about multiple impacts per actor
GETTING TO THE IMPACTS – DO:

40. • Record every possible impact
• List software ideas
GETTING TO THE IMPACTS – DON’T:

41. BRAINSTORMING IMPACTS

42. THE “GROAN ZONE”

43. MIND MUP
www.mindmup.com

44. THE DELIVERABLES:
What can we do to support
the desired impacts?

45. • What can we do, as an organisation or a
delivery team, to support the required
impacts?
GETTING TO THE DELIVERABLES – ASK:

46. • Refine it iteratively as you deliver.
• Treat deliverables as options.
• List only high level deliverables.
• Consider anything that helps achieve the
impact
GETTING TO THE DELIVERABLES – DO:

47. • Try and make it complete from the start.
• Take it for granted that everything listed
will be delivered.
• Don’t get into the details.
• Limit solutions to software
GETTING TO THE DELIVERABLES – DON’T:

48. January 2014
Workshop #3

49. PLAYING BACK THE IMPACT MAP

50. GETTING TO A RELEASE PLAN

51. February 2014
Workshop #4

52. REACHING CONSENSUS

53. April 2014
The Result

54. • An agreed set of priorities
• An iterative plan to get there
• While still not smooth sailing …
…the users are happy!
THE RESULT?

55. An example from Facebook
(via Gojko)

56. AN EXAMPLE FROM GOJKO…

57. TESTING ASSUMPTIONS

58. USER STORIES FIT ON IMPACT MAPS

59. Em Campbell-Pretty
Partner, Context Matters
@PrettyAgile
www.prettyagile.com
au.linkedin.com/in/ejcampbellpretty/
em@contextmatters.com.au
WANT TO KNOW MORE?
Read “Impact Mapping” by Gojko Adzic
Check out impactmapping.org/
See my blog: bit.ly/PrettyAgileImpactMap