The movement of aircraft on the ground, in readiness for takeoff, is referred to as taxing off the runway. This is necessary to enable the aircraft to gain sufficient momentum and lift to overcome gravity.

Within the context of software development companies who uses the Scrum, this movement to enable takeoff is similar to two-way interactions between the development team and the Product Owner to enable readiness of project execution.

Until precise and complete clarity of exactly what is required by the client, with both the Product Owner and Development Team being able to clearly and concisely:
(a) Define the End User;
(b) Specify what they want;
(c) Describe the benefit;
(d) Finalize the acceptance criteria;

 

By doing so, the development team will never be in a state of total readiness to start executing the project in accordance with meeting those needs. Until this stage is reached, considerable rework on the project development will take place, leading to increased project completion time and reduced morale of the project team.

Sadly, there seems to be a general reluctance / inability of IT project teams and the marketing team in developing a clear, shared understanding of product requirements that is doable within the allocated time frame. As a consequence, the effort expedited and time taken when developing unnecessary features and functionalities, due to the unclear shared understanding, are wasted.

A practical solution to the problem above would be to use a four step approach to enhance readiness for execution that is similar to what an aircraft does as it is taxing off the runway. On receiving request from a client, both the marketing and product development team members need to develop increasing clarity of requirements through a continuous process of Refine, Share, Discuss and Add Detail, as per the diagram below:

 

 

The above is a practical way of “taxing off the runway” used in software development projects. It provides greater clarity and minimizes uncertainty of project requirements.

With this four step approach adopted and continually refined during the pre-planning stage of the project, sufficient momentum would have been built for the team to start engaging in creative thinking necessary to build functions and functionalities that address the pressing needs of the client.

Only then can the team “take off” in developing solutions to IT problems, just like the momentum that needs to be built on a runway for a plane to take off.

 

Join our complimentary Scrum Fundamentals course. Click here to find out more.

 

Dr Rumesh Kumar,

PMP, SMC, CST,

June 2020

Author Profile

Asst. Prof. Dr. Rumesh Kumar is a:-

• Certified Professional Trainer;
• Certified Knowledge Manager;
• Certified Project Management Professional;
• ScrumStudy Certified Trainer; and
• Certified Tetramap facilitator.

He specializes in areas of agile project management, knowledge management and organizational diagnostics. He has trained hundreds of participants, from multiple organizations such as Tan Chong Motors, Shell and Maxis Communications to become
Scrum Master Certified.