Glossary

Cynic (n): Someone who looks at the world through glass-colored glasses.

—Source unknown

Agile (n): (1) A family of application development methodologies characterized by high levels of direct, informal interaction between developers and end users; and by adding capabilities to software iteratively and incrementally instead of trying to design the perfect solution before programming starts. “Agile” should be an adjective, but that battle was lost a long time ago. Contrast with “Waterfall.” (2) The application of iteration and incrementalism to business strategy.

ATDD (Acceptance-Test-Driven Development) (n): An Agile variant in which the development team first defines the acceptance tests the application must pass, then writes software that can pass them. See also “CRP.”

backlog (n): In Agile, the repository of all epics, features, and user stories.

black-box analysis (n): A view of a business function that describes only outputs and inputs, without any explanation of how it transforms its inputs into outputs.

blamestorming (n): A popular alternative to root cause analysis that focuses on who to blame for a problem instead of performing the more difficult and expensive process of root cause analysis. Example result: “We have a blame-oriented culture and it’s your fault.”

Business Change Governance Council (n): As proposed in this book, the organization responsible for effective change governance. See also “change governance” and “IT Steering Committee.”

business function optimization (n): The practices needed to determine which of the six dimensions of optimization are most important for a given business function, and for taking the steps necessary for making the function as effective as possible with respect to the most important dimensions of optimization.

business process reengineering (n): A process design methodology that imagines the existing process is pretty much worthless and it’s time to start with a clean sheet of paper (or, more accurately, a blank Visio page). It can be useful when integrating multiple organizations. Otherwise, it’s just one more process design religion that ends up fixing what’s broken by breaking what’s fixed. See also “Lean,” “Six Sigma,” and “Theory of Constraints.”

BusOps (pronounced’Biz-Ops) (n): A term introduced in this book that describes a new relationship between IT Operations and Business Operations in which the two are harmonized so they collaboratively “keep the joint running” and make sure it’s running as well as possible. See also “IT Operations.”

change governance (n): The set of practices proposed in this book for deciding which business-change efforts should be undertaken. It’s the art of helping good ideas succeed. See also “Business Change Governance Council” and “IT Steering Committee.”

change steward (n): The term, introduced in this book, describing the role that corresponds to an Agile product owner when Agile has been adjusted to organize business change instead of just software delivery.

configuration (n): A way for companies to make COTS applications do what they need them to do by making use of built-in capabilities for adding data fields and functionality. Compare with “customization.”

consultant (n): (1) An outside expert brought in to an organization to provide objective and unbiased advice and guidance. (2) A self-described expert whose primary skill is fixing what’s broken by breaking what’s fixed.

consumers (n): Those who make use of a company’s products and services. Contrast with “customer” and “wallet.”

COTS (commercial off-the-shelf software) (n): Prepackaged software an individual or business can license for use. COTS is typically installed on a company’s own servers and is usually licensed as a combination of a core license plus additional per-client fees. Yes, it should be COTSS. But it isn’t, and there’s nothing any of us can do about it.

CRM (customer relationship management) (n): A suite of business applications that supports all interactions with real, paying customers along with all of the information known about them.

CRP (conference room pilot) (n): An Agile variant optimized for implementing COTS and SaaS applications. Similar to ATDD but less formal.

culture of honest inquiry (n): A corporate culture in which everyone embraces the conclusions that result from where the best evidence and soundest logic lead. Those who lead businesses that have this culture understand that their gut is for digesting food—iheir brain is where thinking takes place.

customer (n): The person who makes a buying decision, along with those who strongly influence it. Contrast with “consumers” and “wallet.”

customization (n): A horrible and shortsighted method companies use to make COTS applications do what they need. Companies that practice customization modify data structures and core application code, which makes applying software updates expensive, problematic, and generally a miserable experience.

cycle time (n): The average time needed to turn one business function input into an output.

data lake (n): A highly scalable repository of raw, unfiltered data intended for exploration and analysis by data scientists who understand the hazards and pitfalls of performing statistics on data not collected for that purpose. Compare with “data warehouse.”

data warehouse (n): A highly scalable repository of carefully filtered, scrubbed, and organized data intended for use by just about anyone who needs to analyze the data the data warehouse manages.

decision support (n): The practices, information repositories, and analytical applications needed for a business to inform its decision-making with the best available evidence.

DevOps (n): An Agile variant whose proponents think they invented collaboration between IT Apps and IT Ops. Originally, DevOps meant including someone from IT Ops on Application Development teams. What makes DevOps interesting is its insistence on automating everything that can be automated, and its diligent insistence that the software being developed is always in a deployable state. The meaning behind the common description of the DevOps methodology is that it practices continuous integration and continuous deployment.

enlightened (participle): A term that describes all executives, managers, and staff who have read this book and accepted the principles it propounds.

epic (n): In Agile, a high-level description of something the system should do, described in very broad terms. Example: create and edit documents. Compare with “feature” and “user story.”

ERP (enterprise resource planning) system (n): (1) Proper us-age—a business application suite designed to support enterprise resource planning practices. (2) Usual usage—as nobody knows how to go about “enterprise resource planning,” ERP is used to describe a suite of applications that supports a business’s core internal processes and practices such as core accounting, supply chain management, and order management.

excellence (n): For a given business function, its ability to adapt, tailor, customize, or otherwise create value irrespective of quality.

Example: A Lamborghini that leaks oil all over the garage floor is low quality but still excellent, as contrasted with a Dodge Neon that starts, accelerates, brakes, and stops every time you drive it, even though it’s boring.

experience engineering (n): The practices required to make the experiences users and customers have as un-irritating as possible.

feature (n): In Agile, the capabilities needed for an epic to be satisfied. Example: enter text, format text, store documents as files. Compare with “epic” and “user story.”

fixed costs (n): For a given business function, the costs incurred before processing any work. The metaphorical “cost of turning on the lights.”

illuminated IT (n): A complimentary term, used by enlightened IT management to refer to business DIY application development and implementations that are supported and assisted by IT so as to avoid risks and potential compliance issues.

incremental cost (n): For a given business function, the additional cost incurred by processing one more item.

incrementalism (n): A business-change philosophy built around evolutionary principles—that small changes can accumulate into transformative results with lower costs, less risk, and more rapid delivery of value than attempting to craft a perfect design from scratch.

information technology (IT) (n): (1) Computers and associated technical items, and what they can be and are used for. (2) The organization within the business responsible for its computers, what they’re used for, and what they could be used for but aren’t yet. See also “IT Applications” and “IT Operations.”

invisibility index (n): The only metric that matters in assessing the performance of IT Operations. The invisibility index determines how visible IT Operations was during a reporting period, on the grounds that the only time anyone notices IT Operations is when something goes wrong, so that perfect invisibility is the best possible rating.

IT Applications (Apps) (n): The part of an IT organization responsible for developing, enhancing, and maintaining new software; or licensing, installing, integrating, and configuring commercially available software. IT Applications succeeds by changing yesterday into tomorrow.

IT Operations (Ops) (n): The part of an IT organization responsible for making sure all of the business’s information technology is running properly. IT Operations succeeds by making sure tomorrow looks as much like yesterday as possible.

IT Steering Committee (n): An organization devoted to coordinating the efforts of each business function to get as much of IT’s time, attention, and budget as possible. (2) An organization devoted to preventing bad ideas from receiving any further consideration. See also “Business Change Governance Council” and “change governance.”

Kanban (n): (1) A practice within Lean in which those who perform work receive their assignments from a queue of work to be done. (2) An Agile variant that follows the Lean practice of the same name. Kanban application development is less rigid and more flexible than Scrum, letting everyone involved concentrate on getting useful work done.

Lean (n): A process design methodology that, when properly applied, reduces waste by optimizing work-in-progress queues. When improperly applied it’s just one more process design religion that ends up fixing what’s broken by breaking what’s fixed.

legacy system (n): A puzzling term that should mean a valuable system current practitioners inherit from their predecessors, but that in actual use means a business application akin to a boat anchored and becalmed in the middle of the Sargasso Sea: it floats, but its passengers and crew can neither leave nor make progress.

marketshare (n): The fraction of all spending for a product or service category captured by a business.

methodology (n): (1) Proper usage—the study of methods. Nobody ever uses this definition. (2) Common usage—a method. (3) Accurate usage—a business “religion,” applied to situations whether or not it fits those situations.

mindshare (n): The extent to which potential customers, faced with making a buying decision, think of the business in question instead of its competitors.

multivariate (n): (1) In statistics, analyses used when multiple causal factors can influence a given effect. (2) In this book, situations in which multiple factors all influence a given effect, resulting in a high degree of difficulty determining which one or ones are responsible for a given outcome.

pain point (n): (1) Usual usage—anything anyone doesn’t like. (2) As used by the enlightened readers of this book, for a given business function, one of the six dimensions of process optimization that’s both highly ranked and unsatisfactory.

persona management (n): Categorization of customers and consumers into typical groups that experience your company, characterizing them by way of an evocative name as a convenient shorthand. Examples: “Demanding Dan” describes difficult but highly profitable customers. “Agreeable Anne” covers customers who accept whatever experience they happen to get without complaint . . . until they get on social media.

practice (n): A way to organize a business function so that success depends on the knowledge, skills, experience, and overall judgment of the practitioner. Practices are typically optimized for fixed cost, cycle time, and excellence. See also “process.”

pretzel logic (n): Business workflows that follow baroque and convoluted paths. The inefficiencies associated with pretzel logic are usually a consequence of being forced to use outmoded or poorly constructed supporting business applications.

process (n): A way of organizing a business function into real or metaphorical assembly lines, where success is the result of following the right steps in the right sequence. Processes are “designed by geniuses to be run by idiots” and are typically optimized for incremental cost, throughput, and quality. See also “practice.”

process bypass process (n): Your loyal authors’ term for processes whose purpose is to allow employees, faced with situations the official process doesn’t fit, to bypass the process without process managers completely losing control of the situation.

quality (n): (1) Usual usage—good, or what makes something good. (2) As proposed by Philip Crosby and used in this book, adherence to specifications and the consequent reduction in defects.

root cause analysis (n): When a business outcome isn’t what’s desired, or an undesirable situation arises, the painstaking process of determining what fixable characteristics of the organization either caused the outcome or situation or failed to prevent it.

Rummler-Brache diagram (n): See “swim-lane diagram.”

SaaS (Software as a Service) (n): A form of COTS that’s made available through the internet instead of being installed on a company’s own computers. SaaS is typically licensed on a pay-as-you-go basis.

SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework) (n): An attempt to address the strategy-to-action impedance mismatch by adding structure and rigor to Agile’s informality. That is, it’s an application development methodology that grafts a thin Agile skin on a Waterfall heart.

Scrum (n): The most popular Agile variant, probably because it’s the most highly structured, and therefore most palatable to project managers accustomed to Waterfall’s tight control over application development.

shadow IT (n): A derogatory term used by IT management to refer to business DIY application development and implementations, although not as derogatory as “rogue IT.” Contrast with “illuminated IT.”

shelfware (n): Anything, but especially software and consultant recommendations, that’s been bought, paid for, and made available but that nobody actually uses. Example: most management books, but not this one.

six dimensions of optimization (n): Fixed cost, incremental cost, cycle time, throughput, quality, and excellence (definitions provided).

Six Sigma (n): A process design methodology that, when properly applied, reduces variability among process outputs (products), thereby reducing the number of defective products produced. When improperly applied it’s just one more process design religion that ends up fixing what’s broken by breaking what’s fixed.

SLA (service level agreement) (n): (1) A term in contracts negotiated between service providers and their customers that specifies a minimum level of service and how often the service provider must reach or exceed it. (2) A formal contract negotiated between IT managers who think they’re running a business that supplies information technology and related services, and their so-called internal customers. Like a true contract, it places the relationship between the two parties at arm’s length. Unlike a true contract, it provides no remedies for nonperformance because don’t be ridiculous.

SME (subject matter expert) (n): Someone who knows more than we do about the subject at hand.

SSC ratio (n): A metric developed by Bob Lewis and Scott Lee that compares the time a business change will be useful in production (numerator) with the time needed to accomplish the change (denominator). The SSC ratio explains the impact of change acceleration: think of it as how long food you grow and prepare lasts before it becomes too moldy to eat.

The acceleration of change means the time-to-mold metric is getting shorter, but the time needed to plant, grow, harvest, and cook isn’t.

strategy-to-action impedance mismatch (n): What happens when Waterfall-oriented strategic planning collides with iterative and incremental Agile implementation methodologies.

swim-lane diagram (n): A type of flowchart that’s particularly useful for white-box analysis. It lays the process flow in a grid, with rows representing actors and columns representing steps, presenting both process flow and responsibilities in a single view.

Swim-lane diagrams were invented by Geary Rummler and Alan Brache, a fact known by a small fraction of the consultants that use them.

SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) (n): A useful but inverted framework for business strategic planning.

Compare with “TOWS.”

technical architecture management (n): (1) An arcane but necessary IT function responsible for establishing the design and engineering guidelines needed so that the collection of applications, information repositories, and underlying platforms and infrastructure assemble logically and efficiently so as to support the organization’s processes and practices. (2) An ivory-tower white-paper factory.

Theory of Constraints (n): A process design methodology that, when properly applied, improves process capacity and throughput by speeding up process bottlenecks (constraints). When improperly applied it’s just one more process design religion that ends up fixing what’s broken by breaking what’s fixed.

throughput (n): A business function’s realized capacity—the number of inputs it can turn into outputs in a given unit of time.

touchpoint (n): As used by the enlightened (those who have read this book), a touchpoint is the intersection of a process step and an interaction channel. Placing an order on a company’s eCommerce site might be a touchpoint; placing the same order through the company’s call center might be another; using online chat for after-purchase support might be a third.

TOWS (threats, opportunities, weaknesses, strengths) (n): A useful strategic planning framework introduced in this book. It’s superior to the better-known SWOT in being externally focused: weaknesses and strengths have no meaning except to the extent they affect the organization’s ability to pursue opportunities and counter threats.

user story (n): What Agile has instead of traditional requirements. It describes something specific a user wants to do. Example, standard form: As a document creator I want to be able to define styles that describe all formatting for selected text, so I can easily format document parts consistently. See also “epic” and “feature.”

value lever analysis (n): An approach to business modeling that tries to take into account the multiple linkages and connections between actions a company can take and their bottomline impact.

wallet (n): One of three “customer” roles; the wallet is the person or group that provides the money used to buy a product or service. Contrast with “customer” and “consumers.”

walletshare (n): The fraction of everything a customer spends for a product or service category provided by a business that’s spent with that business.

Waterfall methodologies (n): A family of project management methodologies that divide the work into phases, where once you finish a phase—once you go over the Waterfall—it’s expensive and disruptive to go back to the top. In application development, methodologies that attempt to fully specify the solution before it’s possible to fully understand the problem.

Alternate etymology: it’s called Waterfall because once you go over it, you crash onto the pile of rocks at the bottom and aren’t likely to survive the experience.

white-box analysis (n): A view of a business function that describes how it transforms its inputs into outputs. White-box analysis usually consists of a nested set of flowcharts or swim-lane diagrams.