Ayman Idris - The Agile Initiation Playbook: A Practitioners Guide to Launching Large Agile Projects

THE
AGILE INITIATION PLAYBOOK

A Practitioners Guide to
Launching Large Agile Projects

Chapter 1: The Initiation Sprint

Introduction

... And this is what I love the most about Agile, gushed the seasoned software engineering manager as he devoured his second serving of sushi, his appetite only matched by his enthusiasm. Were constantly in doing mode. The suits in finance and marketing dont get it, but you dodont you? We dont have time to waste on interminable planning sessions every time we start a new project. To hell with planning. Youve got an idea? Great! Lets build it and see if it works! Its magic, I tell ya. Magic!

In my almost twelve years as an Agile coach working with tens of organizations, Ive heard many variations of the same point he made: that Agile liberates us from the onerous burden of having to spend any time at the beginning of a new software project or initiative to plan what to do. We just dive in and write code. Those who espouse this belief will tell you that any plan becomes irrelevant almost the moment it is produced, and therefore any attempt to spend some timehowever shortat the beginning of a new project to try to figure out what it is we really need to do is futile.

Common sense, of course, tells a different story: while it is true (as evidence has shown time and again) that, in the highly complex and ever-changing world of technology, wasting months after months in pursuit of a perfect plan of work to address a complex problem is simply not the best way to go, we still need some sort of broad alignment between our various stakeholders on the projects initial direction.

And the need is evidently more profound when the project is large and complex. How can we plunge into coding if we do not have a common understanding of what the desired outcomes are for our customers and for the business, for example? Or without confirming whether everyone is on the same page regarding why our current approach to solving the customer problem or need is no longer viable? Or without building a shared understanding of what our customers actually want and need? Or without discussing our different working styles as team members and how we can work best together? etc. I cannot think of a situation in which not having those discussions early in the project bodes well for the projects future.

This book lays out in detail how I help teams create that initial broad alignment as we kick off a new software project. During a three-week period of intensive collaboration that I call the Initiation Sprint, I work with a cross-functional team comprised of those with a stake in the project to explore some of the key themes and questions mentioned above, so that we start the project on the right foot.

The book follows, in a step-by-step fashion, a recent Initiation Sprint I facilitated for a large, APAC-based bank, detailing the different activities and exercises we embarked on as we initiated the project: exploring the problem; creating a shared understanding of what success means to our customers and to the business; and discussing the features that will help us achieve that success. I will discuss the particulars of that project and the circumstances surrounding the Initiation Sprint in Chapter 2.

This is a highly practical, hands-on book. My aim is that, once you have read it, you will be able to confidently and successfully facilitate an Initiation Sprint end-to-end, even if you havent facilitated anything of that magnitude before. There wont be any drawn-out discussions of Agile concepts and theories. Rather, concepts, theories and principles are only discussed in the context of putting them into real-life application.

Who is this book for?

I wrote this book for people who will be facilitating, supporting, sponsoring or participating in the initiation of an Agile project. You do not need to be an Agile expert or a master facilitator to understand and apply the approach laid out in this book, although basic Agile knowledge is necessary.

So, what happens exactly in the Initiation Sprint?

When initiating a software project, the team embarks on an effort to explore three core initiation dimensions that are critical for success:

Product: What exactly is the customer problem that we need to solve? Who has that problem? Why is it worth solving? What are the overall business and customer goals that we hope to achieve by solving this problem? What would the solution look like? How do we know that we have successfully solved the problem? This is essentially what many refer to as product discovery.

Process: How are we going to work together to solve that problem? What are the meetings, artifacts, roles, governance checkpoints, standards, tools, etc., that define our Way of Working? What tools and technical practices will allow us to create the best product possible?

People: Who are the people solving this problem? What are our aspirations? Preferences? Strengths and weaknesses? Working styles? How can we bring out the best in each other? What is our social contract as we take on this formidable challenge?

Pause for a second and examine this list again. Is there anything that made you think, Hmm... I dont see any value in asking this question prior to commencing development work.? If not, then thats why we need the Initiation Sprint.

Initiation is not about finding final answers to these questions (or others). Initiation is a process of exploration, the purpose of which is to build a shared understanding of the different aspects of the problem among the team. By providing the team with many opportunities to reflect on, share, and challenge assumptions, the team emerges from the Initiation Sprint not only with a plan for how to start building the product, but also with a collective recognition of the challenges that they need to work through together, an acknowledgment that no one party has all the answers, and a sense of appreciation and empathy towards one anotherqualities that would serve the team well throughout the project.

Flow and deliverables of the Initiation Sprint

The Initiation Sprint contains activities and exercises that are designed to address the three initiation dimensions mentioned above (Product, Process, and People). Over the course of fifteen days, the team:

- --- Explores the business drivers and expected outcomes for the business and the customerthe Why of the project. The outputs of this exploration include the projects definition of success and the projects Lean Canvas (one-pager)

- --- Explores the current-stateas-issituation: How are we addressing the problem at the moment (current products/offerings addressing the customer need)? What are the deficiencies/pain points/inefficiencies, etc., that necessitated finding a new answer to the business problem? (from different perspectives: customer, business, technology)the outputs of that exploration include