Skip to main content

Agile Entrepreneurs- Part 2 of 3: Agile Requirements & Planning

Too often wannabe entrepreneurs fade out because they do not have the resources to put their ideas to the test. They may be able to talk to a customer or two, but there they often reach a dead end when the customer asks for a prototype or demo. It costs money - and takes time - to build one. And most aspiring entrepreneurs don't have a lot of money- or not enough - at least that's what they think.

If you're an aspiring software entrepreneur, without an infinite capacity for risk, your prayers have just been answered.

Imagine this scenario. The entrepreneur uses an online (web-based) agile project management tool to define the requirements. He then meets with potential customers, gets their feedback and refines the requirements, and prioritizes the features.

Next the entrepreneur defines a short Release that contains the bare minimum functionality needed to "validate the business model". In plain English, this means that there's a customer out there who is willing to pay for it if delivered as promised.

This is where it gets interesting. The entrepreneur and the potential customer(s) decide on and define together - quite possibly directly into the online project management tool- the highest priority features to be implemented in the first three Iterations.

Continued in "Agile Entrepreneurs, Part 3 of 3, Agile Software Development"

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Splitting User Stories vs. Rally's "split" feature (that has nothing to do with it!)

Agile tool Rally has a "split" feature it recommends to handle "unfinished work" in a Scrum Sprint: Manage Unfinished Work - Split user stories ( new link ) Below are my observations on the "Split" feature in Rally (followed by a few excellent articles on Splitting User Stories):   This "split" feature in Rally has numerous problems: 1. Nothing to do with Splitting User Stories It has nothing to do with "Splitting a User Story" which is an advanced but fairly well-understood field in Agile, and a tool for Product Managers to use in one of the two scenarios: The Product Manager does it before an Iteration commences (i.e. during backlog creation or release planning) to create User Stories by business value that are right-sized, i.e. they can be comfortably implemented inside an iteration; The Product Manager does it in Iteration Planning or in the middle of an Iteration to reduce scope by removing/simplifying accept

Agile Entrepreneurs Manifesto

The  Agile Manifesto  defines the 4 core Values that define "Agile":  " Individuals and interactions",  " Working software",  " Customer collaboration", and  " Responding to change" As I applied Agile requirements (user stories), engineering (XP), and process & project management (Scrum & Kanban) to my startups  (RideStation, and Agile Entrepreneurs)  starting from 2005 to now in 2018, I learned numerous lessons and shared them with my fellow entrepreneurs for the next dozen years. These lessons I have incorporated by "extending" the Agile Manifesto with two additional values pertaining to  Product (5th) and Startup/Business (6th)  -  that the services consultants who wrote it in 2001 probably didn't have to contend with as most (all?) of them were not founders of product startups:  "User Validation, Customer Traction, and Business Milestones" Agile Entrepreneurs Manifesto Us

Entrepreneur Committee - Advisory Board of SVASE

For whatever it is worth, I would like to announce to my millions of would-be readers that I have been invited to join the Entrepreneur Committee on the Board of Advisors to the Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs . And I have accepted. If you're a hi-tech entrepreneur, I would love to hear your suggestions on what I can do in my "official" capacity to make SVASE a better organization for startups.