9 Top Tips for starting an Agile Project

1. Set-up a planning session with the project sponsor... get them to share the vision... identify  the Success Criteria (I.e. the conditions under which the vision will be considered realised)
2. Use Rob Thomsett's project success sliders to define the degree of flexibility in the different dimensions.
3. Derive SMART Objectives (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely)
4. Create a Product Breakdown Structure
5. Turn this into a Product Flow Chart and use this to communicate the project roadmap to both the team and the sponsor.
6. Use Mike Cohn's planning poker to estimate the relative weighting for each of the main products on the roadmap.
7. Establish a burndown chart to track 'speed over ground'.
8. Propose that your project sponsor gives the status reports on the project.
9. Re-plan the project regularly.  Keep checking that the project goal is still the same (i.e. progressive elaboration)