QuickStart

QuickStart is an approach to initiating projects that enables you to build a shared understanding and vision of potential projects at speed. It lets you make informed decisions; moving forward with validated ideas, and quickly identifying and passing on those that will fail.

Lengthy time to market, process waste, and project failure are endemic to the IT industry. The patterns for failure are often established even before the project has begun:

• Lack of effective communication
• Disconnect between the business owners, IT decision makers and consumers or end users
• Unclear vision of what is really needed
• Inability to make decisions at speed
• Failure to establish clear requirements and an understanding of how they drive value for the business
• Inertia in moving from concept to cash.

Succeed cheaply -- fail fast

QuickStart is an approach to innovation and project inception that counters these issues; empowering businesses to properly and rapidly assess their needs and the viability of a project before development gets underway. In as little as two to four weeks the joint client and ThoughtWorks team drives out a shared understanding of a project's requirements and their associated business value which, in turn, allows for tough but informed decisions regarding that project's future; whether that be to proceed, redirect or scrap.

Opening the doors of conversation

Poor communication consistently underlies the failure of IT projects -- particularly around the creation of valid business cases and the gathering of requirements. This lack of communication is often symptomatic of a long-running disconnect between the business (those that pay for the project), the end-users (those that actually use the output) and IT (those that work to create the output). QuickStart engages all of these stakeholders in short, facilitated workshops to drive out a shared understanding of the high-level requirements; to imagine what a solution might look like, what benefits it might return and what the cost of development is likely to be.

Shared Understanding, in black and white

ThoughtWorks rapidly builds highly visual models that effectively represent how the end solution could work and facilitates a high degree of understanding and consensus of what the solution will deliver. Using lightweight technologies, working software can even be built during the course of the workshops, immediately demonstrating what is possible and engaging stakeholders.

The approach helps all parties understand where key problems and bottlenecks are and how they can be addressed. It also helps define what is not needed so that money is not wasted on functionality which isn't required. With this shared understanding in place the team is best placed to cost and plan for functionality that will deliver value to the business.

An honest partner

We excel in taking nascent ideas and turning them into tangible and consumer-testable proofs of concept at speed. We learn together; if something is not going to work, we'll tell you and suggest possible changes or even scrapping the project altogether. We believe that honesty truly is the best policy and results in a more fruitful and long-term relationship based on trust, which will ultimately deliver far more for both parties.

Read more in our QuickStart case studies

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