The Nature of Software Development

Chapter 15The “Five-Card Method”for Initial Forecasting

If we simply must do initial large-scale forecasting, we can use the “Five-Card Method” to get just enough detail but not too much. We take our grand vision and break each component down into elements small enough for our team members to feel that they know what it means and that they can build it in a week:

• Consider the three to five most important “epics”—the big things that describe the product you have in mind. On a card, describe each one in a single sentence.

• Break down each of these into three to five smaller cards. Make each one more specific and clear—and, of course, smaller. Make sure that each item makes business sense: it should be a “feature,” not some technical idea or ...