Charter

• a contract between those who have money to spend (Gold Owners)
• those who have the capability to get things done

System Embezzlement (need spelling and explanation???)

How does a Charter come to be?

• Ideally, the Gold Owner should draft it
• In reality,
  • it’s someone else (e.g., the team) that drafts the charter and then presents the draft to the Gold Owner(s) for discussion
  • there may be a case where the Gold Owner drafts a charter and the team rejects

4 Primary Components to charter

• Objectives
• Boundary Exhibits
• Committed Resources
• Authorizing Players

III’s context diagram

Objectives

• external measurable effects by a certain point in time
• Internal - ???
• External - where Gold Owner is focused at a point in time
  • Cyclic – recurring
  • Operational – immediate
  • Tactical – near term
  • Strategic - an objective that is 3-5 years out

Boundary Exhibits

• “Context” - (from weaving)things that are nearby and “Scope” are fuzzy
• we need a crisp boundary → context diagram
• Context Diagram
• Key Events Roster - the instantaneous external occurrences that cross our boundary and provoke an internal response that is:
  • Instantaneous
  • Systematic
  • Planned
  • Essential

• Discretionary key events - an external actor makes a choice
• Temporal key events - e.g. Jan 31 payroll; what happens?
• Key event is a more crisp concept than user story

Committed Resources

• in reality, this is a “bet”
• People, tools, facilities, etc.
• Permission to iterate
• Mandatory support for retrospectives
• Access - to information or authoritative decision making when needed

Authorizing Players

• consenting consumers - people you can look in the eye
• they should answer 2 questions
  • Is the work to date acceptable?
  • May we continue?

And there is more to a charter:

• Vision - a statement of the best possible future for the largest number of people for the greatest amount of time (ideal end state; end of the Yellow Brick Road)
• Mission - it sets a path for the work to follow and starts to narrow the choices
• Principles - statements of value that guide and reward desired behavior
  • value statements by themselves are just neat ideas (the seed corn for principles)

Charter should be the least malleable artifact, but it can change

• sh@t happens
• you pause, sit down, re-negotiate, re-commit

Better to have many small charters than one big one

• this is agonizing the first time because it’s probably the first time they are being measurably accountable

Moral of the story: We can’t guarantee that we can meet the objectives

What would you need to provide Chartering Facilitation Training

• More in-depth persistent documentation
• Simulation: for each section
• Benefits/Whys/Consequences of chartering
• Attention to getting the right people together
  • pitfalls of wrong or missing folks
• What happens without a charter: simulation
• Chartering Activities (exercises)
• Self-referential chartering
• Avoiding being seduced (related to objectives ???)

A charter is a retrospective’s way of having another retrospective. A retrospective is a charter’s way of having another charter.

Value - a quality so important that it influences your life

Principle - a statement of value that guides and rewards desired behavior

Values are

• usually 1-2 words
• not immediately actionable

e.g. Agile Manifesto includes Values AND Principles; you need to read both

e.g. Consultant’s Camp is organized by Principles

Exercise: Convert Values to Principles

We Value (as attendees of the 2009 Retrospective Facilitators’ Gathering)

• Honesty
• Shared Enjoyment
• Trust
• Tolerance
• Willingness to Cooperate

for exercise, we pick ...

Value: Tolerance

Principle:

• every interest is “in bounds”
• we welcome divergent points of view

Discussion:

• A way to get out of a dilemma or conflict in the group is to develop a principle that derives the opposite behavior
• There are priorities to values
• Values and Priorities are contextual (it depends on the boundaries)
• Thomas Jefferson: “We hold these truths to be self evident...” What is a truth so self evident? (another tool for Personal Retrospectives!!!!)