Exercise 7b - Client Project Next Steps and Inception Planning

NOTE: Attendance is mandatory to get credit for this assignment.

This is a two-part exercise.

1. In-class discussion of each team's approach to how they will kick off the client project. Tools and techniques for how to manage the beginning of Inception will be discussed and initial roles are assigned to team members.  There is nothing to turn in for this part of the exercise.
2. Team inception planning - On a white-board or blank paper, sketch a plan for the 4 weeks of inception and decide what deadlines you want to initially assign to each inception deliverable.  NOTE: You should take a picture of your whiteboard or sketched plan and turn that in on Canvas before you leave.  Include the names of those who attended class today in the comment box of your submission.

Tips and Clarifications on Planning #2 above:

• Many times, analysis and discovery take longer than we usually expect so build in the assumption that some earlier work could take longer than expected and that more meetings could be required to wrap up as-is understanding, root cause, and solutioning.  That being said, avoid doing just 1-2 things a week or else you may run out of time in week 4 wrapping up inception and charter.
• Consider dependencies of tasks as you plan (e.g. what needs to happen before specific tasks can be started) and what should be done sooner rather than later.
• If you have time in class, consider the following:
  • Based on your roles, interests, and personal schedules, assign a primary (and ideally a secondary) person to each part of the charter to own that work.
  • Consider tasks you'll need to complete this part of inceptions (e.g. meet with client or stakeholders, create a draft, get feedback, review, and signoff final version)
  • Start assigning these owners and deadlines, in Trello and include a checklist for tasks on each card.