Software Moneyball

Limited resources force good software portfolio managers to make difficult choices: they must reject some ideas to strengthen others. They must order work to maximize consistent return. Projects usually lose value at different rates—due to competition, market changes, regulation or resource availability—so the challenge is not just choosing which projects to fund, but when to fund them.

We teach the science of economic prioritization for IT portfolios. Each deferred project has a “cost of delay.” At best, this is the cost of capital; at worst permanent market share loss, regulatory fines, etc. Our techniques help you manage delays and increase overall value; they work best for agile projects, but also succeed in waterfall projects.

We call our quantitative approach, “Software Moneyball.” The book, “Moneyball” describes how the Oakland A’s baseball team used analytics to beat better funded competitors ($40M versus $120M), and transformed the business of baseball.

Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game – Michael Lewis writes about the A’s and its General Manager Billy Beane. Its focus is the team’s analytical, evidence-based approach to assembling a competitive team.

To beat better funded rivals, you must outsmart them. Simple analytics can help you recognize, triage and act on the best opportunities. We have adapted the analytic techniques of economists, geologists and actuaries to IT projects, and teach those techniques to our clients.

If you have these problems:

• You have great ideas but insufficient staff, resources and funding
• Your cash-flow is unpredictable, subject to political budget decisions.
• Some product ideas must be delivered immediately, while others can wait
• You find yourself playing catch up with better funded competitors
• Underfunded dependencies constrain important decisions

We can help you

• assess the cost of delaying work, so you can target resources more effectively
• adapt rapidly to arbitrary budget changes, to maximize overall success
• identify and protect work highly sensitive to delay
• deliver your most strategic ideas earlier, while limiting risk
• justify difficult tradeoffs with economic analysis, avoiding internal politics
• forecast economic outcomes by modeling dependencies and constraints, showing likely outcomes and exposing risks
• mitigate risk by assessing dangers, forecasting potential loss, and taking action

Use Us

Contact us for

• A free 1 hour introductory “Software Moneyball” session for executives
• A 1 day tutorial on forecasting, calculating cost of delay and managing risk
• A 2 day course on using probabilistic models to forecast and make tradeoffs
• A 3 day analytics and forecasting consulting engagement, where we apply these principles to your projects

Our teaching and consulting services and based on direct experience in large organizations. Senex Rex consultants have held senior executive positions faced with the same problems you face. Our exposure to a diverse client base will help you succeed.