How to use the playbook

This process is best aligned with charity website re-platform projects, which have the following attributes:

• High base level of expected features due to business-as-usual

• Common conventions and consensus on basic feature sets

• Often capped budgets and timelines

All this means that an unstructured, completely agile approach wouldn't make sense here. However, there are still lots of ways we can use agile principles to de-risk the project. Continuous learning and testing, openness and transparency, and expecting requirements to change rather than defining them strictly up-front allow us to deliver the best value for clients.

The phases outlined in the playbook enable us to plan tasks in an appropriate sequence. This helps us resource the right skillsets at the right times and allows us to account for dependencies. This playbook overview diagram shows the main emphasis of each phase and the ways we expect to get feedback on our work as we go through the project.

The client's budget is our primary constraint. We must work with it to deliver the best return on investment and impact for the organisations we're working with. When client budgets cannot accommodate our full services, we need to find the best ways to still deliver high impact outcomes. This could mean adapting our approach, using existing data or research, or using members of their team to run activities, amongst other things.

With that in mind, the playbook shouldn't be considered a prescriptive list of tasks that need to be achieved. You should always apply critical thinking to ensure we’re doing what’s best for the client and their budget.