Follow value in defining RAs
[RA = Requirement Area; PBI = Product Backlog Item.]
In LeSS Huge, there is an additional scaling technique called RA. How to define RAs has confused many practitioners. This article tries to open a perspective.
By which dimension?
By which dimension do we define RAs?
We know that RA is customer centric. RAs are not defined from the dimension of technology or functions, but customer/business domains. However, there could be multiple customer views, which one is more appropriate?
Let's illustrate this question with the following example. The product for development is an e-commerce site. There are two dimensions for consideration while defining RAs.?
1. Process steps
Engage/Find/Buy/Followup are areas based on normal process steps for shopping customers.
- Engage: engage customers for awareness, example PBIs - home page improvement, live streaming
- Find: find desired product, example PBIs - product details page improvement, recommendation
- Buy: buy product with ease, example PBIs - guest checkout, new payment method
- Followup: provide after-sales service, example PBIs - product review, return handling
2. Cross-cutting
Standard/Special are cross-cutting areas serving different customer needs and scenarios.
- Standard: standard product & process, example PBIs - home page improvement, product details page improvement, new payment method
- Special: customized and personalized product & process, example PBIs - recommendation, live streaming, embossing, special packaging, gifting card, group gifting
In the cross-cutting dimension, a variant could be gifting area, grouping all gifting related PBIs.
As you can see, some PBIs fit in both dimensions, while other PBIs fit one dimension better than the other. Nevertheless, assuming that the skeleton is already in place, both process-step and cross-cutting dimensions could reflect customer value. Then, which one is more appropriate?
Think about PBIs
Let's return to the definition of RA. What is a RA? There are three aspects: 1) there is an Area backlog; 2) there is an Area PO; 3) there are 4-8 feature teams in the Area.
The first aspect is the fundamental one, and the other two are derived from it. Area backlog is a subset of the product backlog, and consists of a group of PBIs. Therefore, we can change the question from "by which dimension to define RAs" to "by which dimension to define PBIs".
The below is a snapshot of the product backlog for the e-commerce site.
- product review
- shipping status update
- product details page improvement
- new payment method
- embossing
- guest checkout
- return handling
- gifting card
- group gifting
- live streaming
- AR try-on
- home page improvement
- ...
All PBIs are customer centric, but some are in the process-step dimension while others are in the cross-cutting dimension. We define PBIs by whatever dimension that carries value. The dimension of PBIs varies as value changes. Sometimes valuable PBIs appear in the process-step dimension, other times valuable PBIs appear in the cross-cutting dimension.
As RAs are essentially a group of PBIs, the same holds true for RAs. We define RAs by whatever dimension that carries value. In other words, we follow value in defining RAs.
The below is an example of how the RAs may evolve in the e-commerce site over time.
One last hint, when many PBIs are cross-RA (or have to be split into multiple RAs), it is the time to consider adapting the RAs.
