Your First Agile Project

Strategica InstituteYour first agile project

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Run one bounded learning loop

01Choose a real modest piece of work

02State the intended outcome

03Keep the reflection private

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Outcome and an honest backlog

01One outcome sentence

02Six to ten ordered items

03State the deliberate Won’t

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Limit Doing to two items

01To Do: waiting work

02Doing: WIP limit 2

03Done: usable finished work

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One elapsed week, then inspect

01Daily: moved / next / blocked

02Review the outcome at week’s end

03Reflect on planned / surprised / change

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Full lesson transcript: Your first agile project

Everything in this course so far has been about other people's work — bakeries, hospitals, festival teams. That ends now. The final piece of this course isn't a lesson, and nobody can watch it for you: you're going to run one full agile loop on something real from your own life. Not a simulation. Yours.

In the next three minutes: the five steps, which lesson each one comes from, and what "done" means for this capstone — which, fittingly, is not what you might think.

First, pick something real and modest. Planning an event. A job search. A side project. Sorting out a room, a portfolio, a garden. The worksheet below walks a birthday-party plan end to end as a worked example — the same one from your template pack — so you'll never face a blank page. Pick something with genuine stakes but a small footprint: this loop runs in about a week.

Step one — write one outcome sentence. Not a task list — a change in the world. "The party happens, Dad is delighted, and I'm not exhausted on the day." That's Module 3, Lesson 1: outcomes first, and everything after this sentence is a hypothesis about how to cause it.

Step two — draft your backlog: six to ten items, story form. As-a, I-want, so-that — and yes, you can be your own user. Then order it: what's the one top? Where's your honest Won't? That's Lessons 2 and 3 — and here's the quiet test built into this step: if an item's "so that" just restates the item, you've caught yourself padding your own backlog. Cut it. It's strangely satisfying.

Step three — build the board. Three columns — To Do, Doing, Done — and a WIP limit of two on Doing. Two, deliberately tight: you now know the sixty-year-old law that says your instinct to start five things is precisely how everything ends up late. Stop starting. Module 4, made personal.

Step four — run a one-week iteration. Each day, a three-line check-in with yourself: what moved, what's next, what's blocking. Ninety seconds, honestly answered. That's the Daily Scrum's purpose — navigation, not ceremony — from Module 2, scaled to a team of one.

Step five — close the loop. Fifteen minutes at the week's end. First a review: hold the outcome sentence up against what actually happened — what did reality teach you about your plan? Then a retrospective, Start-Stop-Continue, ending with one owned experiment for your next loop. Because there will be a next loop; that's rather the point.

And here is what completion means for this capstone: you finish by submitting three short reflections — what you planned, what surprised you, what you'd change. That's it. Not whether the party was perfect or the job landed. If your week went sideways and your retro says exactly how — congratulations, you ran an empirical process on reality and reality answered. That's not a failed capstone. That's the entire skill, working.

Sticky notes on a wall are enough. The worksheet is below; the templates you've seen all course are inside it. One outcome sentence, one honest backlog, one tight limit, one week, one retro. Go run your loop — then come back for the last word.

The capstone briefing and animated design draft remain under review. Playback is orientation only and never completes the capstone. Learners can use the digest and worksheet without the video.

Run one loop on something real

Allow about 35 minutes of active work to set up the experiment and write your reflection. Apply it across roughly one week of elapsed time; that week is separate from the course’s active-study estimate. This is a provisional planning allowance awaiting learner timing evidence.

Choose a project with genuine stakes and a small footprint: plan an event, organize a room, improve a portfolio, test a job-search routine, or begin a modest side project. Aim for a loop of roughly one week. Sticky notes on a wall are a complete implementation.

1. Write one outcome sentence — Module 3, Lesson 1. Describe a change in the world, not a task list. Treat every backlog item as a hypothesis about causing it.
2. Draft and order six to ten story-form items — Module 3, Lessons 2 and 3. Name a user, need, and reason. If “so that” merely repeats the item, cut or rewrite it. Choose a clear top item and an honest Won’t for now.
3. Build a three-column board — Module 4, Lesson 2. Use To Do, Doing, and Done. Limit Doing to two items. The tight limit is deliberate: finish before opening more work.
4. Navigate daily — Module 2, Lesson 3. In about ninety seconds, record what moved, what is next, and what is blocked. This is navigation, not a performance ritual.
5. Close the loop — Module 4, Lesson 4. Review the outcome against reality, then use Start, Stop, Continue and choose one experiment for the next loop.

Capstone success is not a perfect project. The learning evidence is your reflection: what you planned, what surprised you, and what you will change next. A week that goes sideways can produce excellent evidence if the reflection is honest.

Capstone worksheet

Print this page, copy it into a private document, or recreate it with sticky notes. The worked example is a birthday party; the blank prompts are yours.

1. Project and outcome — M3 L1

Worked example: Dad’s 60th birthday party.

Outcome: “The party happens on the 14th, Dad is delighted, and I’m not exhausted on the day.”

My project: ________________________________________________

My outcome sentence: ______________________________________

Write a change in the world, not a list of tasks. Everything below is a hypothesis about causing it.

2. Ordered backlog — M3 L2 and M3 L3

Write six to ten items. Use “As a … I want … so that …” when it clarifies the user and value. Add Must, Should, Could, or Won’t for this loop. If “so that” restates the item, rewrite or remove it.

Worked-example items: confirm a date the family can attend — Must; agree the guest list — Must; reserve an accessible venue — Must; collect dietary needs — Must; choose food — Should; prepare a short photo display — Could; hire a professional photographer — Won’t this time.

Order	Story or item	Must / Should / Could / Won’t	Why this position?
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10

3. Board — M4 L2

Move each item across the three states. Doing has a WIP limit of two. Two may feel too tight; that is the lesson working.

To Do	Doing — WIP ≤ 2	Done

4. Seven-day navigation log — M2 L3

Spend about ninety honest seconds per day. Record only what helps the next decision.

Day	What moved?	What is next?	What is blocked?
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5. Review and retrospective — M4 L4

Review: Hold the outcome sentence against the week. What did reality teach you about the plan?

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Start: ______________________________________________________

Stop: _______________________________________________________

Continue: ___________________________________________________

One experiment for the next loop: ___________________________

Owner: me · Review date: _________________________________

6. Three-part reflection

1. What did you plan, in one sentence?
2. What surprised you when reality met the plan?
3. What will you change in your next loop?

Use the private reflection activity to save all three answers. Saving the reflection completes the capstone practice requirement; it does not judge the project result. Your response text stays in this browser and is not sent to analytics, completion, or certificate systems.

Any certificate is course-level, separate from this project, and subject to accountable approval and release controls. The project itself is never certified or graded.