David Draper, Head of Enablement at Valtech discusses why inception is important to set up your Agile project for success.

1. Setting an Agile Project up for Success
David Draper, Head of Enablement, Valtech UK

2.  What is Inception
 Our Approach
 What do you get

3. inception takes
an idea and
elaborates it just
enough

4. Just enough for what?
Rough project “shape”
Who benefits?
Who is impacted?
Rough costs

5. resisting
analysis
paralysis

6. up-front analysis causes
increased cost and unused
features

7. our fixed price
contracts drive
behaviour through
fear of change

8. the problem with requirements …
… most of them aren’t

9. Collaborative or Contractual?
“Let’s figure out together the
best way to meet your goals”
“Tell us precisely what
you want us to build”

10. Agile requirements principles
Focus on the goals of the
stakeholders
Bring multiple
perspectives together
Do not commit to details
until necessary

11. What do our customers want?
 Reduced time-to-market
 Outcomes reached
 Revenue protection
 Revenue generation
 Cost saving
 Financial diligence

12. Our Approach

13. follow the
value

14. incremental
delivery

16. THE INCEPTION FRAMEWORK
KICK-OFF
PROBLEM ANALYSIS
SOLUTION DESIGN
SOLUTION DELIVERY PLANNING
CONCLUSION

17. MINIMUM MARKETABLE FEATURES
SYSTEM CONTEXT
BUSINESS PROCESS ANALYSIS
PRAGMATIC PERSONAS
LIKES & DISLIKES
UI DESIGN USER STORY MAPPING
RELEASE THEMES
STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS
CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS
VISION STATEMENT
PAIN POINTS UI WIREFRAMES
NON-FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
TRADE-OFF SLIDERS USER STORIES
MINIMUM VIABLE PRODUCT

18. VISION
 For (target customer)
 Who (statement of the need or opportunity)
 The (product name) is a (product category)
 That (key benefit, compelling reason to buy)
 Unlike (primary competitive alternative)
 Our product (statement of primary
differentiation)
taken from Geoffrey Moore’s book Crossing the Chasm

19. Personas
Market segmentation for dummies

20. MMFS
 MINIMUM
How small can a product be and still deliver benefit to
someone?
Benefit can be in the form of new information, a marketing
demo or a new feature for end users
 MARKETABLE
Each increment should deliver recognisable value
 FEATURES
Some features cannot stand alone
Others can be split

22. VISION
CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS
STAKEHOLDERS / ACTORS
CANDIDATE ARCHITECTURE / UI WIRE FRAMES
MMF 1 MMF 2 MMF 3
HIGH LEVEL
ELABORATED STORIES
STORIES

23. What do you get?

24. Deliverables for you
 Shared vision
 Persona & stakeholder analysis
 Roadmap
 Release strategy
 Product backlog
 Technical architecture
 UX / UI mock-ups

25. … and the option to have Valtech deliver it
 Resource profile
 Delivery approach
 Adrid
Assumptions, decisions, risks, issues, dependencies
 Engagement model
 Indicative pricing by stage

26. At what cost
 2-3 weeks
 Multi-skilled team
Engagement manager
Busness analyst
Technical architect
User experience consultant

27. Thank you