Process

Vision = reality

Milestones

• Each stage can have many milestones.
• Milestones have goals with date ranges and we aim for the closest date.
• Milestones are not fixed length like sprints.
• If the squad feels it is necessary, they may break a milestone down into a number of iterations (of variable length), but this is not always the case.
• A kanban-style continuous flow of issues is worked on throughout the milestone until the goal is reached.
• Ceremonies, meetings, checklists, definitions, etc are all performed according to the plan.
• The depth of details in an issue is proportional to the issue's risk
• We plan for breadth-first rather than a depth-first approach by taking advantage of automation, modelling and pipelines (read more below).

Most problem-solving approaches use a depth-first search, i.e. a depth-first search starts at the root node and explores down the branch that shows the most promise and then backtracks if no solution is found. In a way, this is how MVPs and SPVs work. They approach the problem incrementally as the solution is not known.

Another approach is a breadth-first search, i.e. breadth-first search starts at the root node and explores all the nodes at the present depth before moving on to the next. In this way, we can approach a L4L replacement as the legacy system is known and we are not searching for something we don't know. Identifying this as a key difference presents an opportunity for how we approach a milestone.

By considering the whole legacy system for replacement, unlike the strangler fig approach of SPVs, we will have a better understanding of the gaps across the entire system, not just a narrow part. In a milestone, we:

• Model and generate as much of the legacy system as possible.
• Analyse the gap and what requirements are not being satisfied.
• Look for patterns in the gaps that are common.
• Extend the bot's capabilities to fill the biggest gaps.
• Anything one-off, we hand code.
• Start this process all over again (e.g., go back to 1).