Locked lesson.

Upgrade

About this lesson

A clear goal or vision is essential to project success.  That is as true with Agile/Scrum as with traditional projects.

Exercise files

Download this lesson’s related exercise files.

Step 0: Vision.docx
87.4 KB Step 0: Vision - Solution.docx
114.8 KB

Quick reference

Step 0: Vision

A clear goal or vision is essential to project success. That is as true with Agile/Scrum as with traditional projects.

When to Use Step 0: Vision

The Vision is set by the project sponsors before the project is initiated. The Goal or Vision is used by the Product Owner when collecting stories, prioritizing stories, setting the demo criteria, and doing release planning. The Vision is used by the Scrum team when making trade-off decisions.

Instructions

  • This is labelled Step 0 because it is outside of the typical Agile/Scrum activities. In fact, often a Vision is set, and then the organization decides whether to use Agile/Scrum or traditional project management to achieve the Vision.
  • Project Vision or goal is a description of the business impact or end state after the project is completed. It is usually a “big picture” description.
  • The vision is normally set by senior management, the business team or whoever else is acting as the project sponsor.
  • While a large project could have multiple releases, multiple Sprints, and even simultaneous Sprints.  There is only one vision for a project.
  • There is no set format for how the vision should be stated. The most common method is to use a Project Charter format. Every organization has their own Project Charter format. Use your standard format even though this is an Agile/Scrum project, at the level of detail found on a Charter, it shouldn’t matter what approach is used.
  • This step is accomplished by the senior management or business team. Once a vision is created and the organization decides to use Agile/Scrum to implement the vision, the Product Owner and Scrum Master will often meet with the sponsors to ensure they clearly understand the vision and can articulate it to the Scrum Team once they have been selected.

 

Hints and Tips - Example

  • In this section of the course, I will use an example to provide the hints and tips. The example is based upon a project I was involved with recently. I volunteer with a local museum. The museum’s website had not been updated for several years. A decision was made to update it and an Agile/Scrum approach was used.
  • The Charter for the project is shown below.
  • The summary of the vision was to create a responsive website for the museum.
  • As part of clarifying the Charter, we used the “In scope / Out-of-scope” technique. Ensuring that we had agreement with the Stakeholders about what we would be doing and what we would not be doing. One key discussion point was the decision not to include the store (which was not in the current website either). This meant we did not need to upgrade to secure connections and add the complexity of a shopping cart. Getting this type of clarity is very helpful for deciding which stakeholders to work with to ensure the Demo Criteria is written correctly.

Login to download
  • 00:03 Hi, I'm Ray Sheen.
  • 00:05 These next few sessions,
  • 00:07 will go through the steps of running at agile scrum sprint.
  • 00:10 We'll start with step zero, vision.
  • 00:13 You may be wondering why it's labeled step zero.
  • 00:17 Well, that's because it isn't really an agile scrum step.
  • 00:21 This step should be done by the business for any project.
  • 00:25 After the vision is set, the business can decide whether the project
  • 00:28 should be managed using an agile scrum methodology or a traditional methodology.
  • 00:33 I've included this step because we will refer back to the vision from
  • 00:36 time to time.
  • 00:37 And I wanna make sure that we had a discussion on this aspect of
  • 00:41 project management.
  • 00:43 The vision is a high level or big picture description of the project and its impact.
  • 00:48 A good way to think about this is to describe the results or
  • 00:51 impact on the organization the project will have had once it is completed and
  • 00:55 the results are in place.
  • 00:57 Notice it's not describing how the project will be done.
  • 01:00 That's why it should be used with either traditional or agile scrum.
  • 01:04 The vision is set by the project sponsors, normally senior management or
  • 01:08 a business team, not by the scrum team.
  • 01:11 I've seen a few occasions where the primary individual setting the vision then
  • 01:14 became the product owner for the project.
  • 01:17 On large complex projects, there may be multiple releases, multiple sprints,
  • 01:22 even simultaneously occurring sprints, but there's only one vision.
  • 01:28 There's no required format for product vision.
  • 01:30 Every organization approaches it in a method that fits their culture.
  • 01:34 A common technique is to use a project charter.
  • 01:37 But even those vary from organization to organization and
  • 01:40 sometimes even from department to department within an organization.
  • 01:44 The bottom line is do whatever works best in your organization.
  • 01:49 For each step in the agile scrum process, I will identify the responsibilities and
  • 01:53 deliverables assigned to each role on an agile scrum project.
  • 01:57 Think of this like a responsibility and accountability,
  • 02:00 or RACI matrix that you might use in a traditional project.
  • 02:04 In this case, it's pretty basic.
  • 02:07 Senior management or a business team will create the vision.
  • 02:10 If they then decide to use the agile scrum approach, the product owner and
  • 02:14 scrum master will ensure that they understand the vision.
  • 02:17 In particular the product owner will need to understand the vision
  • 02:21 because that will guide who he or she meets with, to obtain story cards and
  • 02:25 the vision is often used to guide the prioritization process.
  • 02:29 The vision is helpful for the scrum master to understand the full scope and
  • 02:33 to assist with overall project planning.
  • 02:36 As I go through this set of sessions that explain the steps of the agile scrum
  • 02:40 project, I'll be using the example to illustrate each step.
  • 02:44 The example is based upon a project I was involved with.
  • 02:47 I've edited it some to protect the innocent and guilty along the way.
  • 02:51 But this will follow closely what actually happened.
  • 02:54 I volunteered at a local museum and
  • 02:56 there was a need to upgrade the museum's website.
  • 02:58 It had been changed significantly in years.
  • 03:01 It was old and stale and not very compatible with current technology.
  • 03:07 I worked with the museum's staff and other volunteers and
  • 03:09 we created a project charter, similar to the one's shown here.
  • 03:13 I tried to keep it as simple as I could.
  • 03:15 We used the in scope out of scope approach to clarify what we would do.
  • 03:19 A key decision was to not include the museum store which wasn't on the original
  • 03:24 website either.
  • 03:26 That simplified the work because we didn't need to upgrade the hosting to
  • 03:29 an e-commerce platform and add a shopping cart and
  • 03:32 all the complexity associated with that.
  • 03:34 Notice that we kept things simple.
  • 03:36 This is a very basic project charter format.
  • 03:39 In this case, I took on the role of product owner
  • 03:42 since I was the only one among the volunteers and
  • 03:44 staff who would be working on the project that had any agile scrum experience.
  • 03:48 I then trained Heather as scrum master and spent some time with the rest of the team
  • 03:52 to insure they understood what we were doing.
  • 03:55 So with the vision in place, we were ready to get started.
  • 03:58 As with any project, a vision statement will act as a great organizational
  • 04:04 principle and assist the team with key decisions along the way.
  • 04:08 If your stakeholders can't describe a vision for the project, you'll likely have
  • 04:13 major problems regardless of the project management approach that is used.

Lesson notes are only available for subscribers.

PMI, PMP, CAPM and PMBOK are registered marks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.

Gift this course