I had the opportunity to attend an Epic valuation session with an agile coach and product managers. The goal was to determine the financial valuation of a multi-year  Epic.🔄 Though it was a valuable exercise, the process was very long, painful, complex and so many assumptions.

Epic valuation is more than just a financial exercise; it’s a strategic alignment of investment with innovation. 🌟It should not be a leap in the dark but a calculated step towards validating a benefit hypothesis. 💭

Budget should first be assigned to fund the Epic MVP (Minimum Viable Product). The outcome will determine where to continue (perserve) or to stop (pivot). Only when an MVP satisfies the benefit hypothesis should a full implementation budget be approved. 💡

A good approach should be “Fund the MVP first”. This ensures that we’re not just throwing money at assumptions but investing in tangible, testable outcomes. It’s about smart allocation of resources to fail fast and fail cheap, preserving the agility of decision-making. 🛠️

Why run an Epic valuation session with so much assumptions when we can use MVP to validate them? If we must go  in this direction, then we can easily create an SOW (Statement of Work) fund it and execute with a project plan. ‘ 🚀 but that’s not the lean agile mindset.

It will be an ‘Epic failure’ when we over-commit without validation. Let’s champion the MVP-first approach and make every dollar count towards innovation and growth. #AgileMindset #LeanPrinciples #InnovationInvestment

#Agile #ProjectManagement #LeanPrinciples #Innovation #scrumbanai