Fidelity: the lost dimension of the iron triangle

The Iron Triangle of Project Management is a well-known concept, consisting of three basic variables; scope, cost and time. At least one of these variables has to be flexible, assuming that we want quality to be non-negotiable.

Agile teams primarily use a prioritised backlog to vary the scope over a given time. However, there is another variable at our disposal; fidelity.

Fidelity allows Agile teams the flexibility to deal with scenarios where scope, cost and time are fixed, without resorting to cutting on quality.

Topics:

• Iron Triangle review
• Introduction to Fidelity and related concepts (Dimensional Planning, Feature Grading)
• Iterative vs. Incremental development with Fidelity
• Fidelity-based planning with Feature Injection and Story Mapping

Participant takeaways:

• Differences between iterative and incremental development
• How to use fidelity to balance these two aspects of development
• How to plan work to allow for fidelity

Themes:
Iterative Development, Incremental Development, Project Management.