- Can a Jelly startup grow a spine? - Agile PM may just do that...

The usual startup story and the need to define, commit and check on the critical 4Ws (Who does

What, When and Why)

byStelios Sbyrakis

www.sbyrakis.netstelios@sbyrakis.net

+306972710644@sbyrakis

Ok, Ok, areare we all we all on the levelon the level??

• jelly?– Jelly's a casual work event where everyone's

invited.

– It's for anyone who'd like to work alongside other creative people in a welcoming environment

– You bring your laptop and some work, and Jelly provides wifi, a table and chairs, and smart people to bounce ideas off and collaborate with.

Ok, Ok, areare we all we all on the levelon the level??

• startup?– “a startup is an organization formed to search for

a repeatable and scalable business model”, Steve Blank http://steveblank.com

– “the act or process of starting a process or machine; a new organization or business venture”, http://en.wiktionary.org

– “Early stage in the life cycle of an enterprise where the entrepreneur moves from the idea stage to securing financing, laying down the basis structure of the business, and initiating operations or trading”, http://www.businessdictionary.com

Ok, Ok, areare we all we all on the levelon the level??• project manegement?

– “Project management is the process by which projects are defined, planned, monitored, controlled and delivered such that the agreed benefits are realised. Projects are unique, transient endeavours undertaken to achieve a desired outcome” http://www.apm.org.uk

– “The discipline of organizing and managing resources (e.g. people) in such a way that a project is completed within defined scope, quality, time and cost constraints” http://en.wiktionary.org

– “Approach to management of work within the constraints of time, cost, and performance requirements”, http://www.businessdictionary.com

agile project management agile project management (APM)(APM)

• Concept initiated from agile software development methodologies, such as SCRUM and XP

• The basic idea is that a 'user story' exists, which is a way of describing a desired product/service.

• The narrative structure of a story allows any involved user function to be able to describe a story. Its then up to the project team to decide when & how to implement the story in a product service. The project delivery process is iterative and many times works on a trial & error basis.

agile software developmentagile software development• Agile software development

– software development methodologies based on iterative and incremental development of a user story, where requirements and solutions evolve through collaborationevolve through collaboration between self-organizing, cross-functional teams. Scrum manages a backlog of stories and how the team works through them. XP uses the stories as the 'spec' for implementing the feature into code and hence bringing it 'alive' in the product.

• Scrum (http://www.scrum.org/ )– an iterative, incremental methodology for project management

often seen in agile software development, a type of software engineering.

• Extreme Programming (XP) (http://www.extremeprogramming.org/ )– favours frequent "releases" in short development cycles

(timeboxing), improving productivity and setting checkpoints where new customer requirements can be adopted

can a Jelly transform in a can a Jelly transform in a startup?startup?

Jelly ingredients Talented & self-motivated people Space & ICT resources Network of an international community

Idea / pitch A spark to inspire the talented A leader figure to unite them A vision to a service / product Identify people, means & resources to achieve it

Startup An agreement between committed people to provide

resources in a plan leading to achieving the vision Execution of the plan

what agile PM can do to a start what agile PM can do to a start up?up?

• Define the idea in terms of a story– Everyone understands it and everyone can contribute

• Expand the story into scenarios leading to user roles and finally to user actions (use cases)– A user action is the minimum granule that is

understandable by all the team– A user action can be given as the spec to the

designer/developer to produce service/product– User actions can develop into the test cases

• Plan & assign tasks, monitor progress, present results / deliverables regularly & iterate– Regulate meetings / deliverables using the agile

methodologies (but not only…)– If needed use standard PM techniques, depending on the

nature of your startup project

agility in the teamagility in the team• Startup team should contain people with different

roles, complementary to each other.– Every team member is the leader in her function– Any team member can audit & question everyone in the

team about their job, verify the commitment of others, if you see a problem shout!

• Always have a common, up to date, top level master plan, defining who does what, when & why– If a startup is to succeed, at least all the internal tasks have

to execute 100%. If any task fails, the whole venture is in jeopardy.

– If something goes wrong, be flexible to undertake someone else’s job, although you may be not 100% capable, you know the project.

aagile gile startup startup lifecyclelifecycle

• One can find typical startup lifecycles, defined by several people / organizations

• Agility in this context means to quickly identify your personal exit (or not) strategy, depending on current circumstances. This will help you, the team & the startup.

Be agileBe agile

• Startups by definition differ from each other, before you endeavor in one, be prepared to change and commit. Your personal agility can be the crucial factor that will make the startup leap beyond the pack!

• After all, continuous change is what life is all about