RICE, WSJF and Business Value
RICE(Reach, Impact, Confidence, Effort) and WSJF(Weighted Shortest Job First) are two different prioritization models and both having the same structure and convey approximately the same thing - but are philosophically different.
In both the cases, the formula is same. The final score is defined as
And the higher the score, the higher the priority.
Now, looking at it, as like planning poker, these are also arbitrary numbers. Based on my best guess, I assign the numbers and then, I derive the values. Besides, I don’t exactly have a way to define the minimum gap between two consecutive numbers - should this be 1? 10? Fibonacci? Because of this, if I want to push one feature to the top, all I need to make b to 100. After all, you can’t exactly decide time criticality or impact, right?
However, these two are quick gauges to bucket the features into priority baskets with the scoring being done not for all the features available but for related features or features which appear similar. I will come to the concept of “similar” later.
Now, coming to the definitions.
Reach: How widespread the feature usage will be?
Impact: How critical the feature can become?
Confidence: How confident you are to deliver it?
User Value: How critical the feature can become?
Time Criticality: How much will we lose if we delay it?
Risk Reduction or Opportunity Enablement: What is the cost of not doing it?
Now, if you notice, Risk Reduction is considered either as risk reduction(cost of allowing an existing issue to persist) or opportunity enablement(cost of delaying the launch) to suit the needs.
Effort is, well, how long you will take to complete it.
Now, coming to the concept of similar. Let’s consider two features.
Correcting an Operations Report which is giving an error of 10 million USD
Launching a new product range targeting the age group 18-22
In the first case, it’s an operations report of no real value. But, my confidence to deliver it and the time it’s going to take is very less.
In the second case, it’s a new product launch and is going to have some serious market impact. I am not sure of the reach and confidence, and the effort it’s going to take is huge. But, on the other hand, it’s a huge opportunity enabler for business expansion and is very critical that it should be launched now.
Which one should I consider? Common sense tells me to focus on product range launch. My scores tell me to focus on report correction. If I am using RICE, there is no competition between the both. But, if I am using WSJF, may be, I can squeak my product launch through by reducing the effort from 21 to 13.
This is why I mentioned similarity. You can’t compare a back end report correction with business expansion. For the business or for that matter, anyone, the priority is always business expansion. There are two ways I can think of addressing this -
Don’t consider the full score. Focus only on the numerator part. Take it to the management stating that the numbers excluding the effort are stacking on the wrong feature(first case - 26, 5, second case - 52, 125), which one do you want us to prioritize?
Create another bucket which groups features and gives them a priority. Something like business expansion gets 21, supply chain optimization gets 13, management reporting gets 8, general reporting 5 - something of the sort. And then, manually try to prioritize if the numbers are similar.
In fact, these are some edge cases where the management will have to thrust it’s choice down the throats of the teams ignoring the agile rules. The other extreme argument is that anything which has an effort of 21 is not exactly an agile feature and is a kind of enterprise program which should be dealt separately - either through Scaled Agile or even Waterfall. Eventually, whatever works, works!!