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agile inceptions 101

the basics of a Pivotal Labs core practice

A Practice is a path

towards a Goal or Principle

path

A Practice is just one possible path

(of many possible Paths)

towards a Goal or Principle

paths

TL;DR

TL;DR TL;DL

TL;DL

  1. goal of an inception:
    build a shared understanding

TL;DL

  1. goal of an inception:
    build a shared understanding
  2. everything else is secondary,
    including story writing and estimation

TL;DL

  1. goal of an inception:
    build a shared understanding
  2. everything else is secondary,
    including story writing and estimation
  3. there is no 3

Thank you!

Questions?

What Are We Gonna Talk About?

  1. a Practice is just one possible Path
  2.  
  3.  
  4.  
  5.  
  1. a Practice is just one possible Path
  2. why Shared Understanding is important
  3.  
  4.  
  5.  
  1. a Practice is just one possible Path
  2. why Shared Understanding is important
  3. outline of a ✌typical inception✌
  4.  
  5.  
  1. a Practice is just one possible Path
  2. why Shared Understanding is important
  3. outline of a ✌typical inception✌
  4. antipatterns, tricks and tips
  5.  
  1. a Practice is just one possible Path
  2. why Shared Understanding is important
  3. outline of a ✌typical inception✌
  4. antipatterns, tricks and tips
  5. inception sandwich: scopings and estimation

a Practice

is just one possible Path

paths

meta-agile

"do what works"

  1. a Practice is just one possible Path
  2. why Shared Understanding is important
  3. outline of a ✌typical inception✌
  4. antipatterns, tricks and tips
  5. inception sandwich: scopings and estimation

Shared Understanding

Shared Understanding

at the heart of most (all?) of our practices

Shared Understanding

everything is at risk without it

  1. a Practice is just one possible Path
  2. why Shared Understanding is important
  3. outline of a ✌typical inception✌
  4. antipatterns, tricks and tips
  5. inception sandwich: scopings and estimation

✌typical inception✌

let's see if we can derive an agenda from first principles

(to the whiteboard!)

possibly-useful questions

what are the goals of an inception?

are there things we want to avoid addressing?

what might put the goals at risk?

who are typical people in the room?

... and what do they want to get out of it?

how did that brainstorming session feel?

you just been incepted!

  1. a Practice is just one possible Path
  2. why Shared Understanding is important
  3. outline of a ✌typical inception✌
  4. antipatterns, tricks and tips
  5. inception sandwich: scopings and estimation

antipatterns

it's the first time many clients are face-to-face with our process and practices

other tips and tricks

the independent facilitator

when is it necessary?

  1. a Practice is just one possible Path
  2. why Shared Understanding is important
  3. outline of a ✌typical inception✌
  4. antipatterns, tricks and tips
  5. inception sandwich: scopings and estimation

scoping notes

we cover all this in the scoping, no?

scoping notes

we need to re-build the shared understanding

story writing and estimation

start with epics

story writing and estimation

"registration and login"

story writing and estimation

put roles under the epic

story writing and estimation

"as an anonymous guest, I should be able to ..."

"as a registered user, I should be able to ..."

story writing and estimation

write stories (quickly)

arrange in dependency order under the role

story writing and estimation

"... click on a 'Start Fizzywigging!' CTA"

"... enter my email and password"

"... enter my username and password"

"... click on 'Forgot Password'"

story writing and estimation

point stories as usual

story writing and estimation

figure out the team's probable initial velocity

is the hour over yet?

that's all I got for now.

more reading

James Bayer's post

Graham's post