© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Your project is already dead. You just dont know it. Jonathan Rasmusson

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved A few words for our sponsors

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Your project is already dead. You just dont know it. Jonathan Rasmusson

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Setting the stage You can be doing everything right, and still fail.

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved

Inception Deck Purpose Designed to: –Eliminate confusion and misunderstanding about what this project is about –Shine a big spot light on areas of potential conflict and misalignment –Highlight challenges BEFORE the project begins –Are we all in agreement? * Original Inception deck created by Robin Gibson of ThoughtWorks, based on the work of Rob Thomsett (Radical Project Management)

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved 1. Remind ourselves why we are here

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Review stakeholder objectives Departmental objectives –Reduce number of support calls by 20% –Increase market share –Support business –Share knowledge Empathize, learn and understand whats driving your stakeholders

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved 2. Create an 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].

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Example - Silicon Graphics For [post production film engineers] who [are dissatisfied with the limitations of traditional film editors] the [SGI workstation] is a [digital film editor] that [lets you modify film images any way you choose]. Unlike [workstations from Sun, HP, or IBM] our product [has all the interfaces needed for post-production film editing].

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Example - Quicken For [the bill-paying member of the family] who [is tired of filling out the same old checks] the [computer program Quicken] is a [PC home finance program] that [automatically creates and tracks all your check-writing]. Unlike [Managing you Money] our product [is optimized specifically for home bill-paying].

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Whats cool about magazines? They hook you at a glance Make their product compelling Show benefits –Not features

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Features dont sell – benefits do FeatureBenefit 245 Hp Engine Anti-lock breaks Cruise control Pass safely on the highway Brake safely with loved ones Save $$$

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved 3. Design a cereal box – sell your product!

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved 4. Create a NOT list

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Objectives and Scope ISIS NOT (but could be) [In scope project objectives here][Out of scope project objectives here] UNRESOLVED [Unresolved project objectives here]

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved 5. Meet your neighbor(s)

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Organizational Context External Entities Entity 1 The Application Functional area 1 Functional area n Entity n Business Entities Entity 1 Entity n IT Entities Entity 1 Entity n

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved 6. Map the terrain

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Users Existing Systems Other initiatives External Systems Logical Scope Operations Support Out of Scope In Scope Legacy Mainframe App DB Enterprise Bus (SOA) Accounting Reporting The Application Functional area 1 Functional area n 3 rd Party DB Message Queue

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved 7. Design the blueprints

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Services Technical Vision SQL Server Mainframe ELT Trans. Thin Client Databases DB 1 DB 2 DB N Transform. Layer Batch All trades Apollo Customer Main Page Client-side Security Validation Web Services Create New Update existing Search by Id Remove Domain Logic Accounts Ledgers Trades Data Access Layer 3 rd Party Tools Complex Calcs 3 rd Party Tools NHibernate Database Content DB Hercules Message Queue Pending Orders updates listens Order clearing house

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved 8. Ask what keeps us up at night?

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Ask tough questions Beginning of project End

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved High-Level Risks What could go wrong? –Is there anything we can do about it? Eliminate what you can –Technical spikes / prototype Then move on Dont get hung-up (awareness)

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Remember the Lords Serenity 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. - The Serenity prayer

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved 9. Size it up 3 months 6 months 9 months Story gathering / estimation / prioritization

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved What will it take - Project Staffing #RoleCompetencies 1Project ManagerSolid Agile Project Management experience Financial services experience a plus 6DevelopersJ2EE/STRUTS/ANT Infrastructure set-up (CC, Functional testing) 2AnalystsXP-style Story Cards (testable, traceable, etc) Test script creation Iterative analysis experience 1CustomerAble to make decisions Source of truth 1QAAutomated Testing expertise

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved 10. Clarify whos calling the shots? The Golden Rule

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Management Structure

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved 11. Trade-Off Sliders Feature completeness Stay within budget Deliver the project on time High quality, low defects Increase profitability by 10% Make business ecstatic Delight customers ONOFF ONOFF ONOFF ONOFF ONOFF ONOFF ONOFF

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Project Estimates Internal Release 0.5 Estimates: –12 weeks staffed as follows - Xxx Remainder of Release 1 guesstimated at 9 weeks Remaining releases guessed – via extrapolation from Story count – at 46 weeks These numbers will be reassessed following Iteration 2, IR 0.5 and R1

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Go or no go

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved What do we need to pull this off? 2 weeks Whole team –Stakeholder –Developers –Analysts –PM –QA Stakeholder time is critical!

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved What if I cant get stakeholder(s) time?

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Key things to remember Set peoples expectations early –Be clear on time commitment –Use mornings for discussion –Afternoons for offline refinement Demand stakeholder involvement Be flexible Certain exercises wont finish in time allocated (you will need to iterate)

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved The end

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Apologies - Shameless plug

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved Agile Project Management Training Agile Intro Agile Project Inception Fundamentals Roles and Responsibilities Team Practices Iteration Planning Building the first plan Story gathering Estimation/Prioritization The first plan Iteration Mechanics Analysis / Dev / Test Sync Points Tracking Velocity Big visible charts Status reports Retrospections Wrap-up Transition Support

© 2008, Rasmusson Software Consulting, All rights reserved