# [[Building shaped work (Shape Up)]] ![[Building shaped work (Shape Up).svg]] %% Last Updated: - [[2021-02-17]] - [[2020-09-05]] Related: - [[Design]] [[Productivity]] [[Software Development]] %% Building shaped work involves the cycle of doing uninterrupted work towards the bets that have been placed. ^b95ce9 ## What's in a [[Shape Up Terminology#^d033e0|cycle]]? - Kick-off meeting to rehash details of the [[Shape Up Terminology#^c751d3|pitch]] among the members of the selected team. - Once the cycle has started, teams are given space to do [uninterrupted work]([[Deep Work]]) - Initially, teams may have a sort of radio silence as each team member determines where to start first and collects their thoughts on the shaped pitch. Allow up to three days. - Teams work to deliver a [[Shape Up Terminology#^b8516a|scope]] including front-end and back-end functionality that can be demoed at the end of the first week. - [[How to decide what to build first]] - As more and more of the work is known, teams make a "scope map" of all scopes that will need to be realized before the work can be considered built. - Teams use [[Hill Charts]] to communicate their progress proactively, so that managers don't have to interrupt them to ask. - Testing and QA need to happen _within_ the cycle, but documentation and marketing do not. ## The circuit breaker Building shaped work is [[Timeboxing|timeboxed]]: there is a "circuit breaker": projects that aren't finished within the six week cycle do not get extended by default. This is intentional, and gives shapers a chance to assess why the a project wasn't finished. Was there something wrong with the shaping? Does the project address the problem? Does it deserve further bets? Does it need to be reshaped or reframed? ## See also - [[Shape Up]] - [[How we build Flood]]