If you’re way into Agile Software Development (as we have been for the past 20+ years), CAPED (Complexity-Aware Planning, Estimation, & Delivery) may look distastefully like, well, waterfall. And you may be wondering, “Have Peter and Richard given up on Agile?”
The answer is a resounding, “No.”
CAPED is a refinement and formalization of how we’ve been helping our most mature Agile clients practice for years. CAPED is Agile done well at the initiative view.
In the CAPED diagram, we model it as four sequential phases because that’s often how large initiatives work, especially when there are things like hardware or regulations in the mix.
Start by choosing what you want to invest in and identify the assumptions and core complexity of your big idea (Strategic Planning). Probe that core complexity, ideally while beginning to deliver the most valuable part of your big idea (Active Planning). Move towards analyzing and delivering the rest of what’s valuable about your big idea (Analytical Planning and Iterative Execution).
But CAPED also plays nice with stable cross-functional teams and continuous flow.
In that case, iterative execution is ongoing—one or more cross-functional teams are always working on the next most important increment of value. In other words, there’s no phase 4. It’s always happening. And CAPED phases 1-3 represent healthy, ongoing development of a product backlog.
Too often, we see product backlogs that…
- defer complex, valuable work and front-load for well-understood features and infrastructure
- are a random collection of feature requests and bug fixes that don’t accumulate into larger meaningful increments of value
- have too much detail too far into the future
But when you use the CAPED approach to build your product backlog, you…
- start with the core complexity of a valuable big idea
- structure work hierarchically so small slices build up into larger meaningful increments that move you towards a vision
- elaborate detail incrementally as you go so you’re planning just-enough, just-in-time
Learn More about CAPED
By front-loading complexity resolution, CAPED gives you the predictability you need and the agility you want.
Interested in learning more? Join us for a free webinar:
Breaking Free from the Planning Pendulum:
Why Smart Organizations Are Moving Beyond Agile vs. Waterfall
Tuesday, Sep 9 | 8:00-9:00 AM MDT
Register for this free webinar now!
We’ll walk through the four phases of CAPED and show real examples of how organizations resolve core complexity before detailed planning.
Plus, we’ll be sharing the most game-changing offering we’ve ever built for agile coaches, scrum masters, and change agents. Everyone who attends live gets an exclusive bonus that won’t be available afterwards.
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