Leading the Two Parts of Chartering

Agile chartering involves a two-step process, and each step includes different players. As in the liftoff, participants include those who build the product and those who direct, guide, support, and evaluate the work:

• Step 1 is an important preparation and clarification session. Invite the product manager, sponsor, and strategic decision makers. This group generates a preliminary purpose statement. It develops a product vision, team mission, and mission tests, understanding that it’ll all go through further refinement in the second round.

• Step 2 is the whole-team workshop. Invite your team and stakeholders to give feedback and revise the preliminary purpose statement. They’ll turn it into the first working iteration of your product vision, team mission, and mission tests. This group goes on to work together to develop the rest of the first iteration charter, including alignment and context elements.

Refer to Chapter 1, ​Plan for a Successful Liftoff​ and Chapter 3, ​Design a Great Liftoff for Your Team​ as you prepare for the two rounds of chartering. Agile chartering happens in group working sessions. You’ll need extra preparation to lead agile chartering activities, whether they’re part of a stand-alone chartering or part of a longer flow of liftoff activities. Review the separate descriptions of the three agile chartering elements in the three chapters that follow, where we provide sample activities for chartering each element. You’ll also find guidance for leading the two chartering sessions.

To implement an agile chartering session in your liftoff, you’ll need a room where people can work comfortably in table groups; access to whiteboards or wall space to hang completed flip charts; and plenty of supplies like sticky notes, markers, tape, and pens to support the activities you plan. Refer to ​The Five Rules of Learning​ to create space that inspires collaboration and learning.

People collaborate more effectively on their charter in environments with certain characteristics:

• A room with natural light and views of nature outside the windows

• Ceilings taller than nine feet (three meters) high, for airiness

• Snacks (high-protein, low-carbohydrate salty snacks promote brain functioning)

• Drinking water and other beverages

• Meals and breaks as needed and customary in your organization

Prework Session

In the prework session, a small group of strategic decision makers convenes to draft a team purpose. The host, who’s usually the product manager, should invite any stakeholders who influence or are influenced by the business need or opportunity. The group can also include marketing or business line managers, CIOs, CTOs, and so on. Find more details and activities for conducting this session in Chapter 5, ​Charter a Clear Team Purpose​.

Plan to iterate on the product vision, mission, and mission tests as the group clarifies each of these three parts of purpose. Discussing and writing each of these parts can trigger new ideas about the other parts. You don’t have to complete one before moving to another. Let the energy of the group take the lead. Post all your work and keep everything visible.

Refine and iterate until you achieve Good Enough for Now (GEFN). Remember, you’re composing a rough draft. There’s no need to agonize over perfect wording, as you’ll take the rough draft to the core team for further discussion. Perfection isn’t the objective.

Whole-Team Workshop

You get the best possible result from bringing the whole team and key stakeholders together in the same location at the same time. Schedule a day when the product manager and core team members can attend the whole event. Attract as many of the right stakeholders as you can. And if chartering is your only liftoff activity, look for a time when your executives can attend. You’ll want them to welcome the group and give a business context to the work. Invite them to return at the end to hear a brief review of the results.

Are you leading the agile chartering session? You’ll conduct this meeting in much the same order as any work-related meeting. Your agenda includes an opening, focused work, and a closing. Think of the most effective meetings you’ve attended. Adopt meeting practices you’ve seen work well. You don’t need to reinvent the meeting wheel, although the agile chartering focus of this meeting will influence the nature of the work. Bring examples of team charters to the session. Prepare to discuss the relevant parts as you work through developing the first draft charter.

To determine if your first draft charter is sufficient to help your team move forward, ask several questions:

• Can everyone (sponsors, stakeholders, core development team members) articulate the business case? For example, if asked, could a team member give a fifteen-second elevator pitch on the spot?

• Are mission tests mutually reinforcing and helpful for team learning?

• Can everyone say what their working relationship is with others attending the session?

• Has everyone publicly indicated agreement with the simple rules and working agreements as they apply?

• Can everyone commit to accomplishing the purpose?

• Have the sponsors committed people with the right skills as well as the nonhuman resources sufficient to accomplish the mission?

Chartering Distributed Teams

For many teams, colocation represents the unattainable ideal. Make adjustments if you have a distributed group. Our foremost suggestion is: use the best electronic collaboration tools you can afford. Include live streaming video with clear audio support in every location (or whatever is the latest virtual collaboration technology when you read this book). When your chartering group isn’t colocated, ​The Five Rules of Learning​ gain importance.

Agile Chartering Participants

The same group of people participate in agile chartering as in the rest of the liftoff. The product manager and sponsors have additional responsibilities to prepare a rough-draft purpose statement. Refer to Table 3 for a description of whom to invite.

Simple Rules for Agile Chartering

When we make chartering decisions, setting core values and following a few simple rules to take action based on those values can provide direction and keep the team aligned with an agile approach. Values for working together should reflect core beliefs about what it takes to create a great set of initial agreements. Table 4 outlines how to take action based on those values. Together, they provide transparency about decision-making as you draft your initial charter and during all the revisions that will come later.