How do I start an Agile project?

I have been teaching Agile courses for a while now.

One of the persistent questions is: “Enjoyed the course, but I want more help on actually doing an Agile (Scrum) project?”

In part this question arises from a wish to have a “cookbook.” This cookbook notion is something most of the smart people (at least people I think are smart) want to avoid. Agile is there to make everyone think together; it is not there to stop you thinking and let you just follow the checklist in the cookbook.

In part this question arises from a wish to understand everything in two days. While Agile is simple in some ways, it really is far too complex to be fully understood in two days. In my opinion, there is still much I need to learn about Agile; even after years working at this.

OK it’s an awkward question. Still, beginners need some help in starting. (Now, as you learn these dance steps, remember that you will never be a good dancer without feeling the music. In Agile, this means you must let the Agile principles become gut instinct. This will take a long time; keep listening to the music.)

So, what are the basic steps?

At one level, they are Deming’s Plan-Do-Check-Act. In fact, at several levels. (See the Deming Cycle.)

Let’s take it to the next lower level. This is what I tend to do…

1. Confirm that you have a meaningful effort to work on.

Many times, someone “says” we have a project, but often it is nice, somewhat useful work. Don’t accept that. You want work that is very valuable. You only have one life on this earth. Do something meaningful with it. Let the team have something truly meaningful to work on.

[Note: I assuming “you” are a manager responsible for a large set of work (e.g., a project). But really “you” could be any team member or other people.]

2. Gather a team.

It is always good advice to get the best people you can. Recruit them. (Note: it helps to have a juicy piece of work.)

3. Assure that the team is on the same page, and agree on a Definition of Done.

Important step. Many parts to it, often forgotten or minimized. Agree that the Definition of Done will change later.

4. Prepare a Product Backlog of user stories (and other work).

Identify the stories, identify the Business Value of each story, identify the story points on each story, identify other factors (risk, dependencies, etc.)… and then order the work. Do initial Release Planning (for now, I will say that means laying out the work into Sprints, and seeing when the first release will be).

This does not have to be perfect and complete; you will revise, add and improve as time goes on, as you understand the effort better.

5. Work on Iteration Zero.

Prepare the infrastructure that the team needs to do its work. (In some ways, this step could start earlier.) This work does not have to be completed before starting a real Sprint 1, and later Sprints might also include some infrastructure work.

Do I need to say that every Iteration is time-boxed? Yes, even Iteration Zero.

6. Start Daily Scrums (stand ups).

Start them in Iteration Zero.

7. Do Sprint Planning.

8. Do daily Sprint work and Daily Scrums.

Completing the stories, and this includes refactoring the Product Backlog and preparing Agile specifications for the stories in the next Sprint and other things.

The ScrumMaster always has an updated Impediments List and is working on the top item. (In effect, this list started on day one.)

9. Do Sprint Review.

This always includes a demo of some sort. Receive feedback to learn faster how we were wrong.

10. Do Retrospective.

This meeting must identify actions. Some actions (with some impact) must be taken before the next Retrospective. The actions should be addressing one or two top items on the Impediments List.

11. Repeat steps seven through 10 until effort is finished.

When you repeat, you must use Velocity to adjust how much work to bring into the Sprint, and the team must, almost immediately, be thinking of every way to increase their velocity. Every way but working more hours than, say 40 per week.

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