Contrary to popular belief, agile training require as much planning as any other project type –

it is the timing of this planning, and how we attempt to minimize wasted effort that is

different from other approaches. To many people, working in an agile manner means little or

no planning, or planning at the last possible moment (e.g. writing user stories for the

upcoming iteration during the iteration planning meeting). While this may work in a very

small project, with a close-knit, highly-effective, very small team, for larger projects this

becomes problematic.

Following the key principles of scaling agile development, our Project Launch service helps

your organization plan “just enough” of the new initiative to develop something, test it, and

determine what the next set of things to launch should be based on the results. Quite honestly,

this is an ongoing activity, not a single event. As with all of our services, we are here to make

you self-sufficient in launching projects, supporting you when you need it, and leaving you to

experiment and try things on your own when you feel ready.

The Approach

Planning a project, then executing against this project involves 5 levels of planning:

Level 1 – Project vision

This is where we develop the project vision, determine the business goal to be met, ensure we

understand the business capabilities that we need to satisfy, and possibly detail some of the

features the new solution must provide.

Level 2 –Release planning

Release Planning involves capturing functionality necessary for a successful product.

Although we may inherit functionality from the Project Vision phase, this is where we add

meat to the bones, and ensure we look at the solution from the end-users points of view. We

also need to prioritize each function, which is often a difficult process.

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