Acceleration

• Acceleration process:

  • Agile planning: https://goo.gl/VEAWTP

  • Abilitazioni / lezioni / knowledge transfer

  • Project release definition: https://goo.gl/TFnnpd

  • Editorial plan

The acceleration process may vary from project to project, depending on its needs and characteristics.

There are, however, common methodologies that could be adopted.

Schedule

Here is a draft of a 2-weeks schedule, that can be changed and adjusted, as needed.

Day 1

• Check-in (arrival, documentation approvement);

• Have a look around (room and kitchen, makerspace, staff presentation)

Day 2

• Exchange information (project presentation and planning, calendar)

• Development and kick-off (machines training, agile planning)

Day 3/4

• Ongoing development (Project development - early prototype)

Day 5

• Ongoing development (review, workshop organization)

Day 6

• Ongoing development (workshop)

Day 8/9/10

• Ongoing development (debriefing post workshop, prototype development, tech revision, usability testing, review after testing)

Day 11

• Documentation (documentation wrap up)

Day 12

• Implementation and wrap-up (roadmap planning, event organization)

Day 13

• Implementation and wrap-up (public wrap-up and aperitif)

Day 14

Check-out (departure)

At the beginning it is fundamental to define the state of the art of the project and the desired outcome, together with the necessary tasks to achieve the goal. This activity can be partly accomplished during the previous steps of the process, but it is important to define these information together with the team when the acceleration starts (see below: Agile kick-off), in order to be sure that everyone is aligned.

The following matrix, called Project Release, helps keeping track of the work during the acceleration period, measuring the project development and outcomes and keeping the staff up to date and informed about the project and the process itself.

Project release 0.x

• Vision:

  • Project name

  • Team members

  • Sprint period:

  • Value proposition:

• Sprint goal:

  • deliverable

  • list of features

• List of tasks + deadlines:

• Sprint output:

  • list of features:

• Tasks accomplished:

Agile kick-off

This is part of various agile planning kick-off activities, usually implemented during the first days of the programme. The agile kick-off is a set of questions, usually moderated by a member of the staff, that the teams need to answer to.

These questions serve two goals: alignment of the team and expectation setting.

Here there are some of them, and related activities that can be carried out together with the teams:

• Why are we here: brainstorm the reasons behind team’s and members’ participation

• Create an elevator pitch: fill the gaps of this matrix

The (name of the project) __ is a (description) __ that (does what) __, for (who or what) __ that (does what) __. Unlike (this existing project) __ out project (does what) __ .

• Design a product box: state the top three reasons why people would use the product, and write down a payoff.

• Create a NOT list: write down all the tasks necessary to finalize the project, and then prioritize them according to the time frame of the acceleration, while defining which ones will be accomplished and which ones won’t.

• Meet your neighbors: draw or write down a network of stakeholders and communities already or about to be involved.

• Size it up: set the deadline for each achievable task defined in the NOT list and use it as a reference for further activities.

According to the outcome of the Agile kick-off the staff will have to schedule, if necessary, knowledge transfer sessions, qualifications / lessons related to useful machines, tools or topics, meetings with experts, etc.

The executive planning is particularly handy in this moment, since it allows to adjust all those things that have been previously planned, according to real necessities and deadlines.