milestone-scoping

Overview

Based on "Shape Up" by Ryan Singer and "The Art of Project Management" by Scott Berkun. The key insight both books share: time is fixed, scope is the variable. Most delivery failures come from treating scope as fixed and time as the flex - which produces the worst outcome (late delivery of bloated scope). A milestone scoped correctly defines what "done enough to ship" looks like within a fixed window, and explicitly names what is deferred.

Workflow

Step 1: Lock the time boundary

Before touching scope, get the time constraint on the table. Ask:

• What is the milestone date or sprint end date?
• Is this date moveable? (If yes, scope discussion changes. If no, proceed.)
• What is the sprint or cycle length?

Shape Up rule: appetite is decided before scope. If the team is willing to spend 6 weeks on this, that is different from 2 weeks - and the solution should change accordingly, not the timeline.

Step 2: Identify the core job to be done

Ask: "What is the one thing this milestone must accomplish for it to be worth shipping?"