99 inception-deck

The Agile Inception
Deck
by Jonathan Rasmusson

Monday, 13 August, 12

Agenda

• Part I - What is the Agile Inception Deck?
• Part II - Creating our own


Beautiful code Beautiful user experience

How can we be doing
everything right ...
and still get it wrong.
Good design On time. On budget.
Great team


We are all in agreement then.


The assumption of
consensus where none
exists is what
most projects.


Need something that ...

What if we did this ...


Enter the inception deck
10 questions you’d be
crazy not to ask before
you start your next project.

~ couple days, a week
1-6 months of planning


1. Ask why we are here.
2. Create an elevator pitch.
3. Design a product box.
4. Create a NOT list.
5. Meet your neighbours.
6. Show the solution.
7. What keeps us up at night.
8. Size it up.
9. What’s going to give.
10. What’s it going to take.


Start

Your project
End

Too late!

Ask the tough questions here


Purpose

• Eliminate confusion and misunderstanding.
• Set expectations.
• Highlight challenges.
• Get alignment.
• BEFORE project begins.

Part I: Seeing the big picture



1. Ask why we are here
• Teams make 1000s of decisions and trade-
offs when building software.
• Want them to make the right ones.
• To do that they need to be informed.
• They need to know ‘why’.

#1 reason for doing this project?

Why are we here?
Better road Logistics
access? tracking?

Regulatory
Efﬁciency?
compliance?

Safety #1

How to get the why?

= Go and see =
(Genchi Genbutsu, 現地現物)


(a volunteer please)


Pitch me the Wii.


What’s beautiful about
having 30 seconds?


Why elevator pitch?

• Brings clarity and focus to project.
• Forces team to think about the customer.
• Forces hard decisions to be made:
• who is it for? how is it different?


The Wii elevator pitch
• For [parents with young families]
• who [are scared by traditional game consoles]
• the [Nintendo Wii]
• is a [family entertainment system]
• that [let’s families play together].
• Unlike [the XBox and PS3 which have complicated
joysticks and controllers]
• our product [uses a natural, gesture based approach
to gaming that lets the whole family play (even
grandma)].


The elevator pitch
• 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].


The elevator pitch
• For [construction managers]
• who [need to safely track people’s locations at the
construction site]
• the [Construction Safety WorkPermit (CSWP)]
• is a [safety communication tool]
• that [allows people to be evacuated safely from sites
in the event of an emergency].
• Unlike [our current paper based system]
• our product [is web based and can be accessed by all
contractors from anywhere].


The Construction
Safety Permit System
Ideal for mine sites

Process permits faster!
Process permits safer!
Track people’s time better!

Where you need it. When you need it.


What if your product
was a box?
What would it look like?

Would you buy?


Features vs Beneﬁts


Features vs Beneﬁts
• 555 horsepower engine • Pass easy on highway

• 0-100 km/h in 4.7 secs • Impress your friends

• Brake energy • Save money
regeneration
• Break safely with loved
• All wheel drive ones


Design a product box
for the Wii
(15 min)


Step 1: List the beneﬁts

Why buy?

Come up with three
reasons why someone (5min)
would buy the Wii.


Step 2: Create a slogan

Something
catchy
Wii can all play
All together now
Wi’ll move you (5min)
(no slogan is too cheesy!)

Step 3: Draw your creation
<Product name>

Slo
Draw

ga
n
<benefit #1>
Your own image here <benefit #2>
<benefit #3>

(5min)

Why would we buy?
The Wii

W
ii m
Clarity

ov
Focus

e
yo
u
Alignment
Intent
Let grandma play
Fun for whole family
Family that plays together...


Let’s talk about scope
How do you tell someone what’s
IN scope
for their project?


4. Create a NOT list
IN OUT

Stuff we

UNRESOLVED


Sample NOT list
IN OUT
Create new permit IntegraBon with legacy system
Update permit Oﬄine capability
Basic search
Basic reporBng (x1)
Print
Delete permit
UNRESOLVED
IntegraBon with logisBcs tracking system (LTS)
Security swipe card


Your project community
is always bigger
than you think.

(story)

5. Meet your neighbours
Technical writers
Safety officers Help desk

Production Infrastructure
support
Core team

Database Security
administrators Everyone else!


Greater community
People to start building Governance (SOX)
Put your core team
relationships with Security audit
members here ... Production readiness
Business transformation
Core team Change management
Database administrators
Corporate architecture
Training group
Technical writers
Legal
Help desk
Networking/infrastructure
Practice leadership team
and everyone else Risk and compliance
out here. Branch supervisors


Part II: Making it real
8. Size it up.


You pick your
architecture ...

when you pick your
team.


6. Show the solution
Browser Services Domain logic DB2 Beware!
Security Mainframe
Validation Webservices

To be decided
No test
Technologies: Unresolved Third-party card environment
swipe system ETL
-‐ <language> Tibco Batch
-‐ <libraries>
-‐ <tools> ?
-‐ <technology> SQL Server
SQL Server
Out of scope
Clustered

SAP HR


How should we deal
with all the craziness?


7. What keeps us up at night?
• Your risk slide.
• If you hear something crazy, get it out
there!
• This is your opportunity to raise any issues
or concerns you’ve got.
• As well as hear from the other side and
other team members.
• Better now than leaving it till later.

Project risks

• Director of construction availability
• Team not co-located
• Unproven technology
• New security architecture
• Timing of new logistics tracking system


Risks worth tackling

Slow computers

Customer availability

Team not sitting together
Economy cratering

Company getting acquired

Customer getting a promotion

Those that aren’t


The Lords Prayer...

Grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
the courage to change the things I can;
and the wisdom to know the difference.


8. Size it up

1 ? 3 ? 6 months?


How big?
• We don’t know exactly (but our sponsors
need a number).
• So we guess - 1, 3, or 6 months
• About as precise as we can get.
• So we gather all our highlevel stories, and
guess how long we think it will take.


Guestimation

Master story list
Add user
Print itinerary
Cancel trip
Book permit
Update permit
Search
Create device
Add swap trade
Add option
Cancel plan

Make sure your sponsors see this!

For example
Ship it!
ConstrucBon UAT Training
~3months 1 wk 1 wk

This is a guess. Not a commitment.


Think small

Risk

1 2 3 6 9 12 months

Project length
(Randy Mott)

How are you going to deal with ...

Too much to do
and
not enough time.


9. Be clear on what’s
going to give.


The Furious Four!

Time Budget Quality Scope


Trade-off sliders
The classic four
ON OFF Feature completeness (scope)
ON OFF Stay within budget (budget)
ON OFF Deliver project on Bme (Bme)
ON OFF High quality, low defects (quality)

* They can’t all be ‘ON’
* No two can occupy the same level

Is this enough?

Other important stuff
Other important stuﬀ
ON OFF Insanely fun computer game
ON OFF Reduce call center traﬃc by 20%
ON OFF Increase conversions by 30%
ON OFF <insert your favorite here>


Phew!
Almost there ...


What two questions
does every executive
want answered
before sponsoring a
project?


1. How much?


2. When?


10. What’s it going to take


Be clear on your team
# Role Skill set
2 Developers C#, Ajax, HTML/CSS, TDD, Analysis skills
1 Tester Automated test experience (Selenium)
1 Project manager Part Bme -‐ not billable to project
1 Customer Source of truth. Can answer quesBons. Available to team.

1 Stakeholder Oversees project. UlBmately accountable.

Put anyone you feel is necessary for the
success of the project on this list.


Clarify who’s calling the shots
Our customer

The decider Where the team gets
Sets direction their marching orders
Calls the shots
Stakeholders

Get to give input

The core team


Rough budget
3 people x 3 1/2 months @$150/hr

$250K

* 160 hrs/ month

What this project is going to take

Construction UAT Training Ship it!

~3 months 1 wk 1 wk

3 people, 3 ½ months, $250K


Summary
• The inception deck is seeking alignment,
awareness, and consensus before starting
our project.
• Skip this step at your own peril.
• It’s much harder to deal with this stuff once
the bomb has gone off.
• Best to raise set expectations now about
how we are going to work, and make sure
everyone is cool with how we want to roll.

Enter dojo


Scenario #1
• While conducting your ﬁrst project meeting, your
customer (a former developer) requests that the
application be built in an old legacy computer language
that is no longer supported within the company.
• He explains that if the program is written in a language
he understands, he will be easier for him to maintain
and modify.
• The employee designated to do the work doesn’t
know the legacy language, and does not recommend
building the application in an unsupported technology.

Which inception deck card should we play?

Scenario #2
• Half way through the project, certain stakeholders begin
changing the requirements and priorities.
• These changes were not agreed to by all stakeholders, and
conﬂict with the spirit and direction agreed on at the
beginning of the project.
• Not sure whether to incorporate these changes or not, the
team is confused about direction, and is unsure whether they
should include these new requirements.
• What can the team do to remedy the situation?

Which card should we play?


7.What keeps us up at night.
8. Size it up.


Scenario #3
• The company’s mainframe is due for retirement and a mission
critical application needs to be written.
• Wanting to do the development in house, the project team
decides to write it using a new technology they have no
experience in, while introducing a new ‘agile’ software
development methodology.
• The application development team is keen, but also very junior.
• What card should we play here before starting the project?

Which card should we play?


7. What keeps us up at
night.
8. Size it up.

Scenario #4
• The team is doing fantastic! Customer is thrilled
• Only when going live do they realize how much work is
involved and how many parties need to be engaged.
• Fortunately, the team is able to scramble, and in record
time they push through the sign-off process (though they
don’t make many friends along the way)
• Unfortunately, a few noses got bent along the way, and
internal groups are not fans of this new ‘agile’ process
• What happened?
• What could we have done to prevent this?

Which card should we have played?

5. Meet your
neighbours.
8. Size it up.

Scenario #5
• You’ve assembled the A-Team.
• The team is pumped.
• Excited to come into work.
• But then something strange starts to happen.
• The customer starts telling the team to stop innovating.
• Stop making the product better.
• Proves incredibly frustrating to the team.
• Don’t understand - why not make the product better?
• After several months best and brightest start to leave.
• How could this project have prevented this scenario?

Which card should we have played?

1. Ask why we are
here.
8. Size it up.
9.What’s going to give.

= Intentionally blank =


Inception Deck Workshop
(1.5 hours)


Gather into teams


Build inception deck for

• Online dating website
• Your favourite mobile game
• Design the new Apple TV
• <your own>


Design an inception deck
8. Size it up.
(5-10 minutes each) 9. What’s going to give.


This is going to go fast

• Appoint a customer (a decider).
• If you don’t know the answer - make it up!.
• Will present examples as we go.


Let’s go!
8. Size it up.
(10 minutes each) 9. What’s going to give.


Let’s go!
1. Ask why we are
here.
8. Size it up.

Let’s go!
2. Create an elevator
pitch.
8. Size it up.

Let’s go!
3. Design a product
box.
8. Size it up.

Let’s go!
5. Meet your
neighbours.
8. Size it up.

Let’s go!
7. What keeps us up at
night.
8. Size it up.

Let’s go!
8. Size it up.
9. What’s going to
(10 minutes each) give.

Let’s go!
8. Size it up.
(10 minutes each) 10. What’s it going to
take.

Resources
• The Agile Samurai
• Agile inception deck template
25% off this week only
Code: PragmaticAgile2012

http://pragprog.com/book/jtrap/the-agile-samurai


== Bonus Material ==


Some parting advice
• Be ﬂexible. You don’t always need every slide.
• Make it visible.
• It’s OK to start the deck yourself.
• Keep it up to date.
• There is no one way! Make it your own.
• Questions!

99 inception-deck

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