Principle: Focus on the Business Need

This is one of the eight principles of DSDM, supporting its philosophy, and used in its process, roles and responsibilities, and products.

Focusing on the business need is not limited to DSDM or to Agile projects, and applies to all projects (e.g., see PRINCE2^®'s Continued Business Justification Principle). However, it has a more important role in Agile projects because predictive projects use their upfront design and planning to define a complete product before starting their development, and therefore, when developing, they can be mainly focused on the product rather than the business need (e.g., see PRINCE2’s Focus on Products Principle), and only use an overall awareness of the business need for their high-level direction. Agile projects, which use adaptation instead of prediction, do not have a fully defined product upfront. Therefore, to make sure they are going toward the right direction, they must pay more attention to the business need.

On the other hand, it’s important to note that many projects are so drawn in the product that they forget why they are building that certain product. As a result, the output may be more about satisfying the technical curiosity or personal preferences rather than the real business needs.

Written by Nader K. Rad

This is (and will be) a work in progress: More details will be added in the future, depending on the feedback.

This wiki is developed and managed by an accredited trainer, independent of Agile Business Consortium and APMG. While aligned with their guidelines, it’s not an official resource.