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The authors describe an Incremental Funding Method (IFM) for scheduling incremental development of software which optimizes the Return on Investment (ROI) by having the requirements engineered into Minimum Marketable Features (MMF) with concrete, monetary value.
The book is very light (less than 200 pages) but packed with interesting material. I read most of the book during a flight from Finland to Germany and finished the book on my way home. Despite the minimal page count, the authors manage to explain why their method is desperately needed and how it fits to existing software processes such as RUP and XP. They also describe the business case for incremental architecture and different strategies for sequencing MMFs and Architectural Elements (AE) for maximum ROI over the project's lifetime.
The only downside I found for this book is that I would've needed some more baby-steps support for the actual calculations (sequence-adjusted net present values etc.). I'm sure others will be hoping to see some more real world examples of feature deconstruction and sequencing as well. On the other hand, I really appreciate the fact that the authors made the effort of putting up a spreadsheet online for supporting their method.
Overall, an excellent book. Highly recommended.
Software development is not manufacturing, nor is it construction, nor is it "just" engineering. It is precisely "development", as in product development. It is a mix of economics, science, art, engineering, and craft. It is "knowledge work", and therefore cannot be optimized by critical path analysis, scientific management techniques, or formal method compliance.
The above, however, is no excuse for a lack financial discipline and rigor in the business case. Most modern approaches have no concept of finances and costs, nor do they apply cost/benefits analysis to the ordering of features. This was to be the responsibility of the "customer", but sadly, they're as human as the developers, and are only familiar with the old tried-and-true WBS time/cost projections. Negotiated-scope contracts are only a partial solution to this problem. Many executives want to get an understanding of their discounted cash flow projections vs. "total spend" over an arbitrary period. They need to ensure they are achieving an appropriate return for the capital commitment.
This book's incremental funding method enables you to budget, sequence, risk-adjust, and NPV-optimize every marketable user story or bundle of use cases over a set period. It will enable you to ROI-justify your software architecture and evolve it instead of sinking costs into it up-front. It will show to non-technical executives the true benefits of agile development: faster time-to-revenue, projects that rapidly self-fund, quicker break-even points, and smaller up-front investments.
In short, this book is an indispensible means to sell the breakthrough productivity of agile methods.
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