We shape the work before giving it to a team. A small group called shapers works in parallel to the development teams. They define the key elements of a solution before we consider a project ready to bet on. Projects are defined at the right level of abstraction: concrete enough that the teams know what to do, yet abstract enough that they have room to work out the interesting details themselves.

<aside> ☝ Be sure to be familiar with Shape Up methodology in a nutshell and Shape Up lifecycle

</aside>

Overview

Shaping is a creative process at which we are trying to find a solution to a given problem or a use case. At the beginning of Shaping process, there is an idea we pick at the To Shape meeting. Each shaping idea has a responsible person who manages the labor of work, such as researching part, proposing a rough solution, and technical viability. The shaping cycle has four weeks and ends with theBetting table .

For more in-depth explanation; read the five chapters in the Shape Up book (30 minutes read).

How we do it

1. We pick ideas at the To Shape meeting and decide who is responsible for each idea.
2. The actual Shaping process takes four weeks during which we must come up with a solution which is well thought out, based on data from research and checked with technical people, that the proposed solution is shippable within a given appetite (the amount of time we want to spend on a project).
3. The Shaping process ends with the Betting table at which each solution is presented in the form of a pitch. The Betting table committee decides which solutions are save to bet on for the ‣.

Read more in the Principles section in which all phases are explained in fine detail.

Principles