The flight plan

Eight outcomes. Flown in order.

The first four get you off the ground: teams, backlogs, workflow and instruments. The last four are cruise: balancing load, aligning releases, closing feedback loops and getting better every cycle.

Organize Teams

Phase: Climb · Foundation · “Crew Brief”

The foundational outcome every other one is built on: stable, persistent, dedicated teams.

Activities & exit conditions

Role & team population: Stable, dedicated, persistent teams responsible for flowing work
Engagement kickoff: Team members are committed and know how to engage in RAD adoption
RAD fundamentals: Team members are engaged and know how to use the RAD playbook
Team chartering: Working agreement, initial Definition of Ready and Done, and working cadence established
Roles & responsibilities workshops: Everyone knows where to find team and role-specific help
RAD Assessment baseline: Every team baselined; re-assessments scheduled on a regular cadence
Coaching plans: Tailored for each team from flow metrics and assessment results

Establish Backlogs

Phase: Climb · Foundation · “File the Flight Plan”

Backlogs live at the heart of value delivery. Strategic alignment and clear priority drive how the organization commits to value.

Activities & exit conditions

Workflow demonstration workshop: Work is kept current in the ALM and aligned with the workflow model
ALM & visual boards: Team boards created, accessible, and configured to the governance model
Single source of truth: Boards reflect the current state of work, not last month’s
Entrance & exit criteria: Criteria for each workflow state drafted and published
Working agreement update: DoR and DoD updated and published in the team wiki

Establish Workflow

Phase: Climb · Foundation · “Taxi & Takeoff”

Disciplined flow from idea to implemented: define and refine, prioritize and sequence, produce, demonstrate and validate.

Activities & exit conditions

Product refinement: A 3-month horizon of prioritized features, 2–3 iterations ready per team
Feature briefs: Features linked to prioritized epics
Story planning: Stories linked to features; teams commit from a prioritized list
Make & meet commitments: Completion ratios with under 20% throughput variance, no orphaned work
Risk management: Risks, impediments and dependencies (RID) actively managed; no commitments on unmitigated dependencies
Feature & story validation: Work validated against the voice of the customer as it is delivered

RAD Health & Metrics

Phase: Climb · Foundation · “Instrument Check”

Predictability is a prime business driver. RAD Assessments and delivery metrics make commitment-making data-centered.

Activities & exit conditions

RAD Assessments: On the calendar, on a consistent cadence, published for every team
Measuring success: Baseline metrics captured and reviewed in a consistent format
Retrospectives: Regular, engaged, with improvement actions visible and tracked
Improvement plans: Documented plans for flow, ecosystem and technical debt, reviewed regularly

Demand & Capacity Alignment

Phase: Cruise · Steady state · “Weight & Balance”

With backlogs and metrics in hand, teams balance commitments with demand. Say/Do ratio and throughput reveal actual capacity.

Activities & exit conditions

Aligning vision to value: Epics carry clear problem and value statements; nothing orphaned
Improvement plan capacity: Retro actions get real capacity in the next cycle, and get finished
Balanced roadmaps: Backlogs balanced to baseline capacity and throughput
WIP limits: No delivery team is overloaded or starved of work

Align Value Releases

Phase: Cruise · Steady state · “Cleared for Approach”

Flowing work, balanced capacity and sequenced priorities aligned to deliver the highest value iteratively, with feedback loops for the next release.

Activities & exit conditions

Feature alignment: Feature backlogs align to prioritized epics
Story alignment: Story-ready backlogs align to prioritized features
Release planning: Plans at a cadence that gives the business options, rationalized against real capacity
Release goals: Code reaches production without rework or missed expectations
Measuring success: Throughput variation under 20%, 2–3 iterations ready, completion ratio over 90%

Establish Feedback

Phase: Cruise · Steady state · “After Action Review”

Stop starting and start finishing. Feedback loops let the organization course-correct so teams are never blocked, never starved, and always on the most valuable work.

Activities & exit conditions

ROI checkpoint: Initiative value measures (KPIs or ROI) established
MVP checkpoint: MVP and experiment goals established
RAD adoption checkpoint: Capability adoption goals established
MVP-aligned demos: Outcomes, not output, validated against MVP and release plans
RID backlogs: Improvement capacity pointed at risks, impediments and dependencies

Continuous Improvement

Phase: Cruise · Steady state · “Steady Vector”

The antidote to an unpredictable market is continuous learning. Self-optimizing teams never stop.

Activities & exit conditions

Maintaining the roadmap: Epics priority-aligned for the next 3–6 months; WIP limits at every tier
Maintaining backlogs: Feature-ready 3–6 iterations, story-ready 2–3, improvement work included
Getting rid of RID: Teams actively burning down risk, impediment and dependency items
Measuring flow: Assessment results and flow metrics satisfactory, at every tier
Prepare for adaptability: Teams aligned and ready for the next change in heading

Not sure which waypoint you’re at?

36 competencies, one five-level ladder. About fifteen minutes. No email required.

Take the team self-assessment