I found that this type of format provided the most benefit to the team members rather than the PM. I also find myself in similar situations trying to bridge the gap between agile principles and some heavier weight deliverables that larger organizations find value in. (which is why they appeared in this list)

Thanks again for your comments and questions. You have also given me new ideas on project kick offs. One other thing I failed to mention is that I like to conduct innovation games during the project kick off sessions to generate/confirm an aligned vision and start to generate the user stories and ultimately the desired feature set. This list does not remove the need for those visioning and solutioning sessions…

Thanks again

Terry

The heart of agile says something like “Let people figure out the right thing to do, and then do it” hereby facilitating the creative process which is a prerequisite in an agile environment.
So I guess my question is to whom do the above user stories add value for - you as PM or the team, or the organistion providing you the scope and funding the project?

If you were developing an agile organistion with-in a traditional organistion, then the above would be excellent training to get the specialists to start working, and you are perhaps somewhere in between

I would propose that your kick-off meeting is focused on the product owner and the product vision - hereby getting the customer and customer team to present to your team what they are expecting, then turn that into users stories.

Based on this you also have initiated a common objective for the customer and the vendor, this objective can then be used as inspiration for you to talk and execise the collaboration - spend time doing the daily meeting, make a couple of users stories based on the product vision etc.

You will find your self with some higly motivated specialists and I will actually bet that they will start talking risks and issues with the client - which if facilitated the right way will enable you and your project to deliver expected solutions, rather than what was specified in a URS 6 months earlier.

The above in my mind, is your checklist (as the traditional PM) to ensure that you have your project initiation well prepared :-)

That said I find that larger agile projects lack some of the formal documents - excatly what the charter is for those of us who are familiar with PMI etc, and I have good experience in taking the charter and slidewaring this for both the customer and IT team and referring to it over the months of development.

However, thanks for the table, it has motivated me to adjust some approaches and provided very useful to some current processwork I am doing.

have a great weekend
Kasper