Everything you need to know

A way to design and deliver software that makes sure customer value is identified, protected, and realized throughout delivery. No customer misunderstandings or disappointments.

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Getting started

This blog is the companion to the Delivery Playbook online reference hosted at GembaKai.us.

• Here on the blog, you get the playbook narrative — every chapter, combined with in-depth stories, articles, lessons learned and career advice.

• The online reference is a platform offering the chapters, templates, workshops and development tools, in an integrated toolkit with an interactive subway map.

As a Customer Obsessed Engineering paid subscriber you get free access to the Delivery Playbook online reference on GembaKai.us.

Using the playbook

The Delivery Playbook is a way to design and deliver software that makes sure customer value is identified, protected, and realized throughout delivery. No customer misunderstandings or disappointments.

If you haven’t already done so, take a look at these articles to get started. If you have, then dive right in to the table of contents, below.

12 reasons to level-up your team with a delivery playbook

Product teams really do outperform: bringing the receipts

How to use a playbook

Subway map

Design thinking

I write about design thinking, career development, DevSecOps, security, artificial intelligence and more. The design thinking content is intimately related to playbook chapters and frequently referenced. Here a few that you might want to dig into:

• Plagued with problems getting to delivery? Solve them with a “steel thread”

• How to create impact with your customer (and why so many projects miss their mark)

• My formula for running a successful workshop (or any meeting)

• Stakeholder management 101: My customer isn’t listening, what do I do now?

• The 30-minute guide to Domain Driven Design: A secret weapon to solve tough problems

• Value stream engineering in a nutshell

Table of contents

The Delivery Playbook chapters provide a comprehensive delivery method. Following is a complete index of each section, organized by chapter along with each supporting companion article.

Mobilization

• Forward

• How to use a playbook

• Pre-mobilization

• 1.0 Mobilization (phase 1 introduction)

• 1.1 Team mobilization

  • Continuous discovery: the missing half of delivery

• 1.2 Current state analysis

  • My boss wants a risk management plan; what is it and how do I get one?

• 1.3 Product vision

• 1.4 Business capabilities & functions

Blueprinting

• 2.0 Blueprinting (phase 2 introduction)

• 2.1 Product strategy

• 2.2 Roadmaps & OKRs

• 2.3 Strategic event storming

  • Do you understand your customer? Subtle word choices lead us into a lot of trouble

• 2.4 Domain modeling

  • The 30-minute guide to Domain Driven Design (part 1)

  • The 30-minute guide to Domain Driven Design (part 2)

• 2.5 Context mapping

• 2.6 Target state architecture

• 2.7 Architecture foundation

• 2.8 Delivery processes & tools

  • When should you think about security?

  • Planning ahead with an AI readiness plan: How AI will impact software development and security

  • Ephemeral environments are the best way to fight “waste gremlins”

• 2.9 Functional architecture

Delivery

• 3.0 Delivery (phase 3 introduction)

• 3.1 Value mapping

  • How to deliver more customer value than your competitors

  • Value stream engineering in a nutshell

  • A definition of done is only half the story

  • Why we shouldn’t hide complexity

• 3.2 Security & governance

  • Why you need a zero trust architecture

• 3.3 Identify product increment

  • The “magic” of just enough estimation

• 3.4 Tactical event storming

• 3.5 Modeling

  • Applying marble & sequence diagrams

  • Using “declarative thinking” to establish stronger controls

• 3.6 Specification

  • How to fix a $25 bug before it becomes a $37,500 problem

• 3.7 Elaboration

• 3.8 Engineering

• 3.9 Validation (coming soon!)

  • Quality engineering versus testing

  • Test batteries as a path to higher environments

  • Testing for value delivered with Behavior Driven Development

Operations

• 4.0 Operations (phase 4 introduction)

• 4.1 Continuous delivery

  • Canary releases & feature flags

• 4.2 Compliance

• 4.3 Review

• 4.4 Release

• 4.5 Monitoring

  • Observability will make everything easier

• 4.6 Incident capture

References

• Online reference

• Glossary

• Col·​o·​phon

Publication details

Accessing the Customer Obsessed Delivery Playbook online

Paid subscribers can access the Customer Obsessed Delivery Playbook online, either from this link or by clicking ‘Playbook’ in the menu bar on the Customer Obsessed Engineering home page.

If you’re a free subscriber, you will have access to previews of most chapters, as well as select full chapters as they are released.

Can my organization get the complete Customer Obsessed Delivery Playbook?

Yes, absolutely! Check out the colophon for details on options available to your organization.

Can I expense my subscription?

You bet! I think that’s a great idea. If you need a starting point, try reaching out to your manager with this template.

And by the way, there are fantastic group discounts. Maybe your company wants to sponsor your whole team?

To learn more about programs for your organization, check out the colophon.

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