We need an estimate of value of each story to prioritise our backlog. In some cases that’s pretty easy because the story will deliver a lot of clear business value, but at other times searching for any value is a lot harder, especially for a business team that thinks in terms of revenues and costs.
There are a lot of things about politics, and especially about the “behind the scenes” elements of politics, that can be approached in an Agile manner. For instance, the recent election of a new Labour party leader - Ed Miliband - featured several aspects of an Agile approach to managing the project.
There was a fairly long period of focusing on business value and prioritisation - ie the leadership campaign itself, where the potential candidates could put forward their points of view and help to formulate a consensus of opinion among the electorate.