Better. Faster. Cheaper. Many IT organizations are constantly seeking the "best" practices that will deliver those characteristics, and the fact that they continue to search indicates they haven’t found them yet. It could be they are looking in the wrong place. Most efforts around achieving better, faster, cheaper center around becoming ultra efficient. Effectiveness may just be the better target. Join Kent McDonald to explore the difference between efficiency and effectiveness and learn three simple, yet powerful, techniques that he has found can help teams be more effective. You’ll learn how to: Build a shared understanding of the problem you are trying to solve Establish clear guard rails for distributed decision making Measure progress based on outcome, not output Along the way he’ll share stories about how he has used these techniques and help you figure out when these techniques may work in your situation. You may be able to get faster and cheaper with efficiency, but in order to get better outcomes, you need to be effective. Come to this session to learn how.

1. ‘Tis Better to be
Effective Than Efficient
Kent J. McDonald
@beyondreqs
www.kbp.media/effective-over-efficient

2. Better.
Faster.
Cheaper.

3. IT has spent 30 years
teaching our business
partners how to be
bad customers.
We need to fix this.
- Jeffrey Davidson

4. There is nothing
quite so useless
as doing with
great efficiency
something that
should not be
done at all.
- Peter Drucker

5. How to be Effective
Build Shared Understanding
Provide Guardrails for Decision
Making
Measure based on Outcome, not
Output

6. Build
Shared Understanding

7. Problem Statement
THE PROBLEM
OF
AFFECTS THE IMPACT
OF WHICH IS
A SUCCESSFUL
SOLUTION
WOULD

8. Provide Guardrails for
Decision Making

9. Decision Filters
WILL THIS
ENCOURAGE
PRACTITIONERS TO
ENGAGE WITH
ASSOCIATION?

10. Measure based on
Outcome, not Output

11. Goals & Objectives
Attribute Description Example
Name Unique name for objective New and renewed memberships/month
Units What to measure Individual Members
Method How to measure Sum of new memberships and renewed
memberships within the month
Target Success level you’re aiming
to achieve
300 members/month
Constraints Failure level you’re aiming
to avoid
200 members/month
Baseline Current performance level 250 members/month
Attributes for Objectives
Goal: Encourage practitioners to engage with association

12. Parking Lot Diagram

13. Parking Lot Diagram Key
Epic Name
User Stories
Done/In Epic
Planned
Release
Epic Status
Not Started
Work In Process
Done
At Risk
Note: Epic can be done even if all stories aren’t done if
outcome is satisfied

14. If you remember nothing else…
Provide guardrails
for decision making
14
Measure based on
outcome, not output
Build shared
understanding

15. Photo Credits
Slide Photo
Build Shared Understanding https://unsplash.com/@providence
Guardrails for Distributed Decision Making https://unsplash.com/@leliejens
Measure based on Outcome, not Output https://unsplash.com/@camadams
If you remember nothing else https://unsplash.com/@dnmgns
Photo Credits https://unsplash.com/@chancema

16. Kent McDonald
kent@kbp.media
@beyondreqs
Materials:
www.kbp.media/effective-over-efficient