On this path to know the agile processes, there are a few essential steps before developing any software project. A series of dynamics that will cement the foundations of our development, are the activities framed in the Inception concept.

Inception, is a word that comes from the Latin incipere, which means “start”. Remember Christopher Nolan’s movie? Well, “El Orígen” as the film is known in Latin America, is about Dom Cobb, a thief who has the ability to enter people’s dreams and steal the secrets of their subconscious.

This type of Inception is not intended to steal dreams. However, this series of processes aims to enter the deepest origins of the ideas of all the people involved in a software project. Thus, we will be able to determine as a team, how feasible its development is.

In this way, as Jmbeas states, the goal of inception is to reduce uncertainties, “helping to express the most obvious risks and pooling everyone’s expectations.”      

How are agile projects born?

That’s what we must ask ourselves before using Scrum. According to Laboratorio TI, Scrum is a framework for software development. “Scrum enables us to collect requirements in a certain organized way and process them with the team until they become software,” says the specialized site.

For development to work, it must go through the Product Owner and/or end user validation. However, several definitions and decisions are needed before starting this Scrum.

Within the first instances to be performed, the IT Laboratory portal proposes to think of the following points to define

:• The scope, defining how I will do what I want to do and what I will not do

.• Agree with all stakeholders on the joint vision of the project, what we intend to achieve and what we do not intend to achieve

.• What risks exist that may jeopardize the project

.• What solution alternative is proposed to carry it out

.• How much and how long it will take us

Now, how do we concrete the mechanism for getting the answers to these points? At Tecnova, we help you solve it with the following Inception dynamics.

Some dynamics of the Agile Inception

All the dynamics we will mention here are included in the book “The Agile Samurai”, made by computer engineer Jonathan Rasmusson. The book aims to giving tips on how agile master’s degrees can deliver good software.

The book is divided into 5 large blocks, but the main block is the “Agile Project Inception”. There he focuses on how to perform an “Agile Inception Deck”. And the dynamics that count for it are the following:

1- Why we are here: A quick reminder of why we are here, who our customers are and why we decided to do this project.

2- Create an Elevator Pitch: If we had 30 seconds (the time it takes to be in an elevator) and we only have 2 sentences to describe our project, how would we do it? Ideal to know if everyone involved in the project is able to create a speech to sell the product to others.

3- Design the product box: If we looked at a magazine and saw the advertising of my product, which I would say, would we buy it?

4- Create a List of Noes: For those involved it is clear what you want to do in this project. Let’s be even clearer and think what we wouldn’t do?

5- Meet your neighbors: This exercise is about meeting all stakeholders surrounding the project.

6- Show the solution: Let’s draw architecture diagrams, deploy (or others) of the solution to make sure we’re thinking the same thing.

7- Question that takes away our sleep: This dynamic makes us think of the worst nightmares that could happen. Time to identify the risks that we can each identify for our project.

8- Measure the project: The duration of the project is defined in 3, 6 or 9 months, not in exact terms. The aim is to infer the magnitude and see if the resources we have are enough to afford it.