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How do you start an Agile project?
If you're thinking, “First, I write my stories and
epics, then I get them prioritized and estimated, and
then plan my first iteration,” that's not it. You need
to think through your project charter first.
The first element in a charter answers two vital
questions: “What are we doing?” (that's the project
mission), and “Why are we doing it?” (which is the
project vision).
In many companies, senior management hands down the mission (the “what” piece). It's often a new
solution, an overhaul, or the next version of an
existing solution. It's likely to be phrased in
businessspeak or in techspeak.
Most mission statements I've encountered are bland
and uninspiring, which is why I always have my clients
craft a vision statement too. A compelling vision
statement will motivate, inspire, and excite the
project community to achieve its mission.
I've facilitated dozens of chartering sessions.
Usually, product and project managers come in with a
draft, and the gathered project community turns it into
a rallying cry. Here are some of my guidelines for that:
Make it about results, not deliverables. When I
managed the informatics department at a pharmaceutical
startup 10 years ago, our end result was to cut
in-hospital deaths from MRSA infections by half. We
would contribute to achieving that valuable vision
through our deliverable — a research lab information
management system.
Make it personal. If possible, make it relate to you,
your users, or your community. For instance, “Our
portfolio managers use [our software] all day, every
day.”
Make it active, not passive. What rings better to
you: “Complete and accurate data is managed in our
solution supporting rigorous analysis”, or “Our
analysts perform rock-solid data analysis”? Avoid the
businessspeak trap of overusing the passive voice.
Make it brief. I don't like spending more than a few
minutes on “wordsmithing” for an exact phrase, but I
will spend time on making the statement simple and
punchy. Your team members are most likely to pursue the
vision if they can remember it, so try to get it down
to a single sentence.
Use a metaphor. The use of metaphor in Agile software
development has had mixed support, but metaphor in the
vision statement is something else. If your vision
statement paints a picture, it will engage its readers
powerfully. Here's a recent one: “[the users] perform
all their interactive analysis in a cockpit-like
dashboard”. Clearly they are building a dashboard, not
a cockpit, but the imagery of a console that has the
complete set of functions is very strong.
Lastly: Have everyone participate in visioning. This
isn't a management- or marketing-only activity. It's an
alignment mechanism, a rallying cry, and sometimes an
eye-opener. “Soliciting team input” is not enough;
get your extended team in a room and facilitate
everybody's creative contribution. You'll be surprised.
Copyright © 2011, 3P Vantage, Inc. All rights reserved.
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