Building and Use – Hybrid
Short Tip: The stage of maturing and developing the solution, as well as delivering the product to users.
What is it?
It is the stage of maturing and developing the solution, as well as its use by users. The goal is to make an initial plan that provides a product overview (scope, time, costs, etc.), as well as a cyclical development method that conducts frequent releases which add value to users and allows testing product hypotheses.
Why use it?
The building stage is inherent in any framework or method. With hybrid projects, however, it consists of an initial planning phase followed by building. This allows meeting the organization’s requirements that are typical of predictive projects, while keeping the possibility of course corrections (adaptation) through user feedback.
How to use it?
The Building and Use phase is hybrid, since it is based on traditional development models, as well as on agile models (iterative and incremental), particularly based on Scrum. The following observations should be considered:
- It consists of two phases, the first being Maturing, which is necessary for the solution’s initial detailing, and Cycles, where the development is executed;
- Each Cycle consists of five sequential steps: Cycle Planning, Detailed Specification, Building and Testing, Value Assessment and Retrospective. Each stage has a range of specific activities and objectives;
- During the Cycles phase, there may be changes (including, removing or changing Product Backlog Items). It is necessary to make these updates in other product artifacts if the team considers that they can generate value to the building process or to stakeholder communication;
- If the team identifies changes that can jeopardize the value generated by the chosen solution, then it should run a Relab, i.e., return to the laboratory of ideas in the Conception stage to discuss new alternatives;
- Each Cycle, when the Initiative Leader indicates that an increment must be released, specific delivery actions must be taken: release communication and user feedback collection;
- The Development Team monitors the Cycle’s evolution through Cycle Backlog, and the Initiative Leader conducts the product’s evolution or the next release through the detailed schedule and the budget;
- Product information is consolidated into the program (set of related products) and the portfolio (set of programs) for the monitoring of value metrics and alignment.