AGILE TRANSITION - Konklave

Unity in the POT – until the white smoke rises.

What do you think of when you hear the name conclave? Election of the Pope – until the white smoke rises? That’s exactly what it means. Unity in the triumvirate of M,T,P – market, technology and project manager is crucial for clear goals in the team. The POT is responsible for the overview, the team for the implementation. A conclave deliberately takes place initially only in the POT. The point is to be prepared before the discussion with the team takes place. The consensus of M, T and P is an absolute prerequisite for the subsequent sprint planning with the team and needs its own time space.
A product owner team needs to find itself in its role and build a relationship with each other. The conclave, moderated by the Agile coach, ends with the question: “Do you agree that this backlog will make the project a success from the perspective of the overall planning? Only when this is ensured does it make sense to get in touch with the team.

How and where specifically?

Starting from a two-week sprint, the POT meets, for example, on a Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. digitally or at a location, preferably close to the offices of the product owner team. For the planning ritual that takes place here, the so-called conclave, no invitation in the calendar, no prepared agenda, no room search and reservation was necessary. This is because the conclave always takes place on the same day at the same time in the same place, every fortnight at the start of the sprint. This meeting works physically without IT tools. It is easy. The meeting takes place at a so-called POT-Agile board. This either hangs permanently on the wall or on a mobile metaplan wall. If it is done digitally, graphic tools have the advantage of more overview and more flexible use.

Example of a physical board: In one company, they had light-weight boards attached as compartments with hinges in one corner of the room. These compartments can be folded down like the pages of a book, so that one left and one right side of the wall can be used opposite each other at a 90° angle for a separate project.