A quote from the book The Nature of Software Development by Ron Jeffries, talking about value (in software) and the building blocks to achieve it:

Value. Value, we’ll see, is “what you want.” […]

We’ll tell the story by building up from the bottom of the pyramid, describing how to guide, organize, plan, and build our product, in small slices, with a focus on quality. The value we produce is based on these.

Guiding. We produce value by creating teams with responsibility for creating value. We make sure they understand what is needed, and understand the time available. We guide them by observing what they actually build.

Organizing. We organize teams with the ability to get the job done. We organize around features, because features give us the ability to plan and build value most rapidly. We apply good people and help them build their skills.

Planning. We steer our projects by selecting the features we need, in the order we need them. We produce value in a timely fashion.

Building. We build up our product feature by feature. This provides frequent delivery of value. We can see how things are progressing early and often.

Slicing. We slice features down to the smallest possible value-bearing size. We build a capable product as early as possible, and then enhance and grow it as the deadline approaches. We’re always ready to ship.

Quality. We apply the necessary practices to ensure that our product always has a good design and that it is as nearly defect-free as possible. We’re able to build value continuously, sustainably, indefinitely.

(p. 5)