Start of an Agile Iteration

The kickoff

Each iteration starts with a kickoff, the main purpose of which is to determine which work items will be realized during the next iteration. Anyone who plays a role in the project takes part in this kickoff, including customers, end users, the project manager, domain experts, developers, and testers.

The work items are selected from the total list of remaining work items, or the project backlog. The choice is up to the customer. Usually, the customer delegates this choice, sometimes to the end users, sometimes to the domain experts who are involved in the project on a daily basis and know the subject matter, also called the domain. A special person may be designated for this role. In Scrum, this person is called the product owner. The list of selected work items for an iteration is called the iteration backlog, or the sprint backlog in Scrum.

Considerations on the choice of work items

Even for those who are involved in the project on a daily basis, the choice of work items isn’t always obvious. There are numerous considerations.

Value

Many Agile approaches state that the work items with the highest value for the customer should be realized first. Unfortunately, it’s often difficult to determine which work items these actually are.

Consistency

Most work items aren’t isolated, but exhibit coherence. Smart utilizes smart use cases as a unit of work. A number of smart use cases together realize a business process. It’s not always easy ...