#24 Wavering Direction At The Project Start

Symptom: The project starts with large epics and does not have a concrete direction with the first sprints wavering and even contradicting each other.

Probable Cause: This may be due to an absence of a release plan and some strategic thinking up front.

Suggested Resolution: Agile is fantastic as it allows you to perform a course correction on the project at regular intervals. However, you still need to know the objectives the project is to deliver and a rough direction on how you are going to achieve them.

A release plan done at the start of a project and then maintained regularly can really help to bring the poject concept with strategic releases into a cohesive direction. This can really help the team to consider not just what is immediately in focus in the current sprint, but also be aware of what is coming up, much like peripheral vision.

The trick of course, is not to over cook it and get into over analysing, but a rough idea of where you are heading and what milestones or mini-objectives you want to achieve along the way, can reap rewards when trying to settle down the product backlog.

A good way to get an initial release plan together is to determine the end objective for the project and then work backwards to derive strategic deliverables that count towards the end goal.

What you are looking for here is to get past that fuzzy start of the project quickly so that the team can settle into a solid rhythm and start delivering at a constant velocity.

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