# [[Shape Up]] Source: [[Shape Up - Stop Running in Circles and Ship Work that Matters]] URL: https://basecamp.com/shapeup/0.3-chapter-01 ## What It Is Shape Up is a methodology for creating and maintaining software within a cross-functional team. Shape Up treats a piece of work as a raw idea that needs to be shaped, pitched, bet on, and then built by the development team. It was started by [[Basecamp]]. ## The Problem - Work tends to build up indefinitely with no end in sight, which is demoralizing. - It is difficult for managers to strike the balance between setting directions and encouraging independent work. ## How Shape Up solves these problems - Work is finite and structured - Shaped work is tackled in iterative cycles: a building cycle of about six weeks, followed by a cool-down cycle of two weeks. - Betting language encourages managers to set the initial direction and then detach from the day-to-day operations. - Managers set the bounds of a piece of work and explain it in broad strokes, but teams are ultimately responsible for how it is implemented. - Risk of nondelivery is handled by timeboxing, and a project is thought of as a bet that may or may not pay off. - Shape Up focuses on "shaping" work, and describes shaping as being between completely abstract work and completely concrete work. Shaped work has boundaries, but is not completely spelled out. ## [[Stages of Shape Up]] (within a [[Shape Up Terminology#^6a4cda|production mode]] cycle) - [[Shaping work (Shape Up)]] - [[Pitching (Shape Up)]] - [[Betting on shaped work (Shape Up)]] - [[Building shaped work (Shape Up)]] ## [[Phases of Shape Up]] (by time) ## [[Shape Up Terminology]] ## [[Weaknesses of Shape Up]] ## [[Shape Up is a type of Agile methodology]] ## Companies using Shape Up - [[Basecamp]] - [[Flood (company)]] - Wrote about it here: [[How we build Flood]] - [[You Need A Budget (YNAB)]] - Didn't stay there long enough to really explore it, but anybody can make a pitch, although they don't emphasize the principles of shaping. Pitches follow a certain format and are posted on Basecamp for everyone to comment on and for managers to choose among. - [[Roam Research]] - In [[Roam Research Believers 20200907]], [[Conor White-Sullivan]] spoke about features in terms of bets. When asked directly whether they used Shape Up, he agreed that their methodology was "similar". - [[k6 (Company)]] - Before k6 was acquired by [[Grafana Labs]], the k6 team used Shape Up to deliver features. ## See also - [[Productivity]] - [[Software Development]] - [[Flood (company)]] - [[Agile]] - [[Work Methodologies]] - [[How we build Flood]]