Contrary to popular belief, agile projects 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.

1. Contrary to popular belief, agile projects 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.

2.  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.

4.  Daily Stand-up
 Never thought about the daily stand-up as a
planning opportunity? Well, it is the ideal
opportunity to plan the next short horizon of work
– 1 day.
 Rather than focusing on “what I did yesterday”
(one of the 3-questions of a stand-up), I prefer team
members to tell the team what they plan on doing
today, and asking for help if they need it. This
allows other team members to quickly identify if
there is a potential for road-blocks of their work,
and decide if they have something to add to
another team members efforts.