Project kickoff

a.k.a Inceptions

We begin new engagements with an Inception. This is a high-intensity kickoff to a project, which captures a shared understanding of the high level goals, their priorities, their budgets, and their limitations. The remainder and majority of the Inception then attempts to capture features (or “user stories”, preferably, as these frame each feature in terms of how it benefits the end user), estimate them if necessary, and prioritize them. Whether stories are individually estimated or not, they are then packed into a few sample weeks of the project to rough out the expected pace of development.

Stories can be re-prioritized as the project progresses and the initial projection will be updated every week with the team’s actual rate of progress. The project’s scope is adjusted every week accordingly.

During the project, new feature requests can come from the stakeholders through the various channels into a structured approval and prioritization process.