Getting approval to attend a training isn’t always easy. Terri, a Sr. Agile Lead, recently made the case successfully and was willing to share her approach so others can adapt it for their own organizations.
Written by Terri, Sr. Agile Lead:
Like so many companies, mine was faced with cutting costs this year and made the tough decision to decrease head count to meet board expectations. As a result, we are trying to grow our agile mindset with less support. At the same time, our teams, like many others, are challenged with how to plan and share those plans with senior leaders, each of whom are looking through a different lens of complexities and needs.
CAPED caught my attention because it was the kind of common-sense approach I have come to appreciate from Richard and Peter. Having worked with them previously, I know the concepts are backed with tried-and-true approaches that can support whatever needs the teams have. The biggest “ah-ha” moment for me is applying the references to projects that came before and starting with that as the true base date upon which to build. In addition, understanding the ways of mapping to best address the varying levels of complexity will be invaluable to our teams.
Despite the budget constraints, I wanted to become a Certified CAPED consultant so I could bring CAPED into my organization. So I put together a basic business case for my leadership that included the purpose, background & need, a training overview with key learning objectives, and the benefits & ROI I expected. I was careful to include key points to address concerns currently faced in our organization: improved planning and execution at strategic levels, internal capability to scale our practices and implement tried-and-true approaches, and reduction of delivery risk while increasing stakeholder confidence.
The final item I feel was impactful was including some details Richard provided, which I modified slightly:
While the cost of training is significant, if it is put into the perspective of the costs of a team focusing their efforts in the wrong direction at a loaded cost of $10K – $15K per day, if we can apply the techniques from CAPED to avoid even one day of wasted work, there is more than a 2x return on investment.
As a result, my budget request was approved, and I’m excited to be registered for the upcoming training. I’m confident it will make a positive impact on our projects and will give me additional tools to help improve the teams I support.
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