The Agile Inception Deck Template

Support for Online Colloquia and Conferences John MacDermott, Warren Petrofsky Project name – pick a cool sounding name for your project Sponsors – list your project sponsors here (the people with the money) Putting your sponsors name boldly out there for all to see is a great way to get their engagement and attention (necessary for any successful project).

Why are we here? Increase SAS’ scholarly presence online Expand the potential audiences of colloquia and conferences. Scale-up our recording efforts to larger and larger numbers of events. Reduce the workload involved in recording individual events on campus Write down all the reasons why your team would wants to engage this project in the first place. Then pick and highlight the most important one. Increase SAS’ scholarly presence online

The elevator pitch For Centers and Departments who host colloquia and conferences the result of this pilot is a solution that both increases your presence online and expand the potential reach of your research. Unlike your current solution, our project will scale-up and reduce workflow involved with hosting such conferences.

Product box <product name> fun picture <slogan> This one is optional. Do it if you think it’s fun or helpful. Otherwise skip it. If you could walk into a store, and buy the shrink wrapped version of your software, what the design of the box look like and what would it say? Point here is to get your team looking at your project through the eyes of your end customer. <benefit #1> <benefit #2> <benefit #3>

The NOT list IN UNRESOLVED OUT Unified online presence for SAS conferences and Colloquia Efficiently manage admin functions such as registration, call for and evaluation of papers Streamlined capture workflow Facilitate asynchronous and synchronous online activities. UNRESOLVED tagged and searchable video List all the items you think you are (and are NOT) going to deliver within the scope of this project. Remember, that your deliverables may change as you get into the project. The deliverables you cite here are initial goals – not necessarily commitments. You may find that you will adjust your deliverables as you discover more about user needs, what works and what doesn’t.

Your project community Centers and Departments Your core team <team#2> <group#1> List everyone you are going to have to interact with at some point during the course of your project. Goal is to start building relationships with these people and let them know we are coming down the tracks (before we actually get there). Everyone else ! ... is always bigger than you think!

The A-Team # Role Competencies/Expectations Set expectations around who you are going to need and what kind of skills they will need to have to pull this off. Use names if specific people are important (i.e. Billy is the only guy who can do X).

Project architecture Make a simple sketch showing what you think will be the major features of your project This is about letting people know how we plan on approaching this thing. Check your clip Art Libraries or Smart Art graphics for components to a a diagram. Or just had-draw a diagram and scan it. Do whatever works best for you.

What stuff do you need? Resource Where will it come from? What are the resources (equipments, services, etc.) you think you’ll need, and where do you think you’ll get it?

What keeps us up at night Can we build something that is more branded that a YouTube Channel This is your chance to call out any craziness you’ve heard while building the deck, and having a frank conversation with your sponsors and your team about how you are going to handle it. This is perhaps on of the most powerful slides in the deck – it’s your chance to ask for whatever you need to be successful and the consequences if you don’t get it. Use it!

Trade-off sliders The classic four Other important things Feature completeness (scope) Stay within budget (budget) Deliver project on time (time) High quality, low defects (quality) ON OFF ON OFF ON OFF ON OFF Other important things Ease of use Don’t make me think! Detailed audits (log everything) <insert yours> When push comes to shove, something has to give. Here we want to be clear on what that is. This one is optional. Use it if you think it’s helpful; otherwise skip it. On agile projects we flex on scope. But there could be others factors at play here so get ready to listen as you customer tells you which forces can bend (scope) and which are written in stone (usually budget). Slider rules: 1. No two sliders can occupy the same level. 2. List other important project factors down below. ON OFF ON OFF ON OFF ON OFF

What are your key milestone dates? e.g. Project initiation Xx/xx/2012 Start first test user Etc. Give your sponsors some idea of timeline for this thing. When will it start? What are the major milestone dates (e.g. relation to the academic calendar)? This isn’t a commitment (too many unknowns). It’s just a really rough guess. Don’t treat it as anything else. This is a guess. Not a commitment.