Inception
The purpose of an inception is for everyone involved in the project to share the vision of the objectives, and for the scope and risks to be sized, and thereby its feasibility determined, before committing resources. It prevents the most common causes of death marches: projects that start without the team and the stakeholders having a common understanding of what is going to be built and why.
When and how
The format and practices used should be proportional to the novelty and complexity of the project:
- Known project, new functionality: a kickoff meeting of a few hours may be enough. The team already knows the context, the client, and the technology; it only needs to align expectations about the specific scope of the new functionality.
- Project new to part of the team: a half-day or full-day session, supported by a gamification practice or an alignment exercise.
- Radically new product or newly formed team: a workshop of one or several days, such as Lean inception, Agile inception deck, or Design sprint, where the vision, scope, risks, team, and feasibility are worked through in depth.
What an inception should produce
A good inception produces, at a minimum:
- Shared vision: all participants can explain what problem the product solves and for whom.
- Initial scope: what is in the project and, just as importantly, what is not (NOT List).
- Identified risks: what could go wrong and how it will be managed.
- Agreement on the next step: when the first sprint starts, who does what, and how the team will communicate.
Common mistake
Running an inception and not documenting its results. The value of an inception lies not only in the conversation but in the agreements it generates. If no one records the commitments, the identified risks, and the agreed scope, the alignment achieved in the workshop fades over the following days and the team goes back to individual interpretations.
Resources
🏦 Skill Agile InceptionState of the art and development guide · Skill Arena
📄 Agile Inception, ¿en qué consiste? [Agile Inception: what is it about? (in Spanish)]Scrum Manager Blog · Feb 2023
📄 Product Owner v.2.0Free download (in Spanish) · Scrum Manager
See also
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