Liftoff-it's the unexplored, often ignored, Agile project practice. As the first act of flight, a rocket launch requires an entire set of systems to lift the vehicle into orbit-not just the vehicle itself, but all the systems needed for smoothly moving off the ground into space. Likewise, your project needs its entire set of supporting systems in place to begin a successful journey to delivery. Whatever you call it (project kickoff, bootcamp, inception, or jump start), liftoff gives your team its trajectory, and launches your project. This critical practice informs, inspires, and aligns everyone to a singular purpose: the successful delivery of software. This success is in your hands! Agile veterans Diana Larsen and Ainsley Nies teach you how to organize and conduct liftoffs, hold team activities to discover what's most important, and offer a working framework for effective and lightweight agile chartering.
Liftoff: Launching Agile Projects & Teams
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A vital book for any team that values collaboration and starting smart
January 22, 2012
Format:Paperback
Diana Larsen and Ainsley Nies' Liftoff is destined to be vital book for any team -- agile and otherwise -- that values collaboration and starting smart. Diana and Ainsley reach into their vast store of experience and wisdom to share essential practices to launch teams through agile chartering. They explain how to plan, design and facilitate activities for these critical chartering elements: purpose, alignment, and context. Diana and Ainsley explain the "what"s and "why"s, sprinkled with useful stories to underscore the rationale for this important work. Liftoff will raise your awareness of--and appreciation for--the simple yet profound imperative to launch teams so they truly ascend to great work and joyful collaborations.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is probably the only book on lifting off projects that recognizes the amazing amount of work required to spin off a project. The most important aspect of agile charter is that it is living and ongoing agile chartering for the duration of the project.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I see it all the time in my agile coaching. Teams who, in their effort to be agile and get going, start sprinting/iterating too soon--before they know where they're going. It feels good to be moving, developing working software--so often this is the attraction. It's an intoxicating combination of feel good forward progress on the part of the team and leadership.
But more times than not, the team started too soon. They're building software but they haven't connected it towards the customers higher level problems & needs--so they're not delivering the value the customer desperately needs. Nor can they communicate what they'll deliver for a "release" and when.
They should have listened to Stephen Covey - about "Beginning with the End in Mind".
And they should have read this book. Diana and Ainsley have written what I think is the seminal work on how to properly START agile projects. They put a focus on the front of the line that is necessary and welcome.
Should every agile project perform a Liftoff? Probably not. But for the vast majority that should...this is the guide for how to get your goals established and feet underneath you before you start iterating towards delivery. How to charter to connect the team to the business and have a clarity around expectations.
And it's effective as a project recovery mechanism as well, for when you've started too soon but realize that fact and want to realign your efforts. So new liftoffs and recovery liftoffs are covered.
For me, if you're an agile coach, product owner, scrum master or literally anyone who is charged with starting agile projects, this book is a must read. And if you're a traditional project manager who is familiar with the notion of Project Charters, then this book will help map that knowledge to agile contexts. Either way, let's start Beginning with the End in Mind.
Bob.
But more times than not, the team started too soon. They're building software but they haven't connected it towards the customers higher level problems & needs--so they're not delivering the value the customer desperately needs. Nor can they communicate what they'll deliver for a "release" and when.
They should have listened to Stephen Covey - about "Beginning with the End in Mind".
And they should have read this book. Diana and Ainsley have written what I think is the seminal work on how to properly START agile projects. They put a focus on the front of the line that is necessary and welcome.
Should every agile project perform a Liftoff? Probably not. But for the vast majority that should...this is the guide for how to get your goals established and feet underneath you before you start iterating towards delivery. How to charter to connect the team to the business and have a clarity around expectations.
And it's effective as a project recovery mechanism as well, for when you've started too soon but realize that fact and want to realign your efforts. So new liftoffs and recovery liftoffs are covered.
For me, if you're an agile coach, product owner, scrum master or literally anyone who is charged with starting agile projects, this book is a must read. And if you're a traditional project manager who is familiar with the notion of Project Charters, then this book will help map that knowledge to agile contexts. Either way, let's start Beginning with the End in Mind.
Bob.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good book but
I really like the book as a guide on how to get a team started. I myself use the Tuckman model to describe how a team develop and I feel that the great benefits of going agile is... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Magnus Salgo
5.0 out of 5 stars
Read it before embarking on a new Agile project
"Lift off" is a msut have for anyone who is working as a Scrum Master or an Agile Coach and, even if, you're not into Agile, the approach for Lift-off can help the kick-off meeting... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Sunish
5.0 out of 5 stars
Totally On-Target
The most important things are often the hardest to explain well. Getting started as an agile team sounds deceptively simple. Read more
Published 10 months ago by N. Vanschooenderwoert
4.0 out of 5 stars
Essential practices for starting *anything*
Before I was 10% into this book, I was already learning new practices I could put to work with my clients. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Jeffrey Lopez-stuit
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must read for everyone managing, coaching, supporting teams (agile...
As I loved Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great, the previous book of Diana. I had to read LiftOff. I did not regret it. She has done it again. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Yves Hanoulle
