# A fixed date with weekly iterations > Keep the exam date and a few milestones fixed, let scope flex, and run the last weeks in short iterations with a board, limits on work in progress and a weekly demo of working pieces. - Course: [Project Management Without the Bureaucracy: Run One Project from Brief to Closure](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy.md) - Module: Running the work: changes and re-planning - Lesson 26/32, ~22 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/a-fixed-date-with-iterations ## Plan or sprints? **Vira:** I like the schedule we built in November. Every task, every date. Let's just follow it to 1 February. **Danylo:** Half of it is already wrong. My team works in weekly cycles. Drop the dates and let us do sprints. **Alex Tutor:** You're both half right. The exam season fixes the date, so the plan keeps it and a few milestones. The details are still being learned, so the work runs in short cycles. **Alex Tutor:** That's **hybrid planning**. When the date can't move and the budget is capped, the one thing that bends is scope: must items first, should and could only if there's room. **Sofia:** So the milestones stay: Vira's final review, tutors vetted, checkout tested. Inside them we go week by week. > **Exercise:** In the physics launch's hybrid plan, what is allowed to flex when the work runs late? ## Four weeks, four iterations **Alex Tutor:** From 4 January to 29 January there are four working weeks. Make each one an iteration: plan on Monday, show working pieces on Friday. **Alex Tutor:** On Monday the team picks from the backlog, musts first, only what fits the week. On Friday you show what is done, update the register and the status, and re-sort the backlog. **Danylo:** And if something isn't done on Friday, it isn't "90% done". It goes back to the backlog with its real remaining days. **Vira:** And the milestones? **Alex Tutor:** They're checkpoints on Fridays. If a milestone's Friday arrives and it isn't met, that's a decision point, not a surprise in February. > **Exercise:** Put one physics iteration in order, Monday to Friday. **Alex Tutor:** Danylo's rule about "90% done", as a quick check. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** on Friday, a card that is "90% done" can count as done for the week if the remaining work is small. **Alex Tutor:** And what does a missed milestone Friday mean? > **Exercise:** Suppose Friday 22 January is the checkpoint for "the last three tutors passed a demo lesson", and only one has. In a hybrid plan, what is this Friday? ## A board with limits **Sofia:** Our board has five columns: to do, doing, waiting, review, done. Danylo has six cards in "doing". **Danylo:** I'm busy on all six. That should count for something. **Alex Tutor:** Six started, none finished. A **work in progress limit** caps how many cards a person or a column may hold. Say two in "doing" per person, three in Vira's "review". **Alex Tutor:** When a column is full, nobody starts new work. They help finish what's stuck. Starting less makes things finish sooner and shows where work piles up. > **Exercise:** Wednesday: Vira's "review" column (limit 3) holds 5 practice sets, and two tutors have finished their own cards. What should happen next? ## No ceremony for its own sake **Danylo:** Do we now need a daily stand-up, sprint planning, a review, a retro and story points? **Alex Tutor:** Only what earns its place. Ask of each ritual: what decision does it help us make? If none, drop it. **Vira:** I teach in the mornings. A daily call at ten is impossible for me. **Alex Tutor:** Then a two-line written update on the board by noon does the same job. Keep Monday planning, the Friday demo and the fifteen minutes on risks. Remote and async by default. > **Exercise:** Which rituals earn their place in the physics team's January? Select all that apply. **Alex Tutor:** Now tie each kept ritual to its decision. > **Exercise:** Match each ritual the physics team keeps to the decision it helps make. ## What to show on Friday **Leo:** What do I get to see on Fridays? Slides with percentages? **Alex Tutor:** Working pieces. The diagnostic test taken by two real learners. A test purchase on the checkout's test site. A recorded demo lesson Vira has passed. **Danylo:** Which also means if the checkout isn't on the test site by Friday, everyone sees it. No hiding behind "almost". **Alex Tutor:** That's the point. A demo turns progress into something you can check, the same way a trigger turns a worry into a date. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** "Checkout 80% done" on a status slide is as good a Friday demo as a test purchase on the test site. ## Your turn: plan one week **Alex Tutor:** Plan the iteration of 18 to 22 January. Vira's review is done, five tutors are vetted, the checkout is due on the test site, and the landing page needs prices. **Leo:** Tell me what you'll show me on Friday the 22nd. **Vira:** And don't forget we still need three more tutors through demo lessons. **Sofia:** Musts that fit, limits on the board, one thing that can slip, and the Friday demo. > **Exercise:** Write the plan for the iteration of **18–22 January**: the must items you pick, the work-in-progress limits, what may be dropped if the week runs short, and what you will demo on Friday. Where things stand: Vira's review is done, five tutors are vetted and three more still need to pass demo lessons, the checkout is due on the test site, and the landing page needs prices. Leo, the sponsor, wants to know what he will see on Friday the 22nd. > **Key points** > > - **Hybrid planning:** the date and a few milestones stay fixed; the work runs in short iterations; scope below the must line flexes. > - One-week iterations: pick musts on Monday, show working pieces on Friday, update risks and status, re-sort the backlog. > - **Work in progress limits:** a full column means stop starting and help finish. > - Keep only rituals that help a decision; written, async updates by default. > - A demo is something you can check: a test purchase, a live page, a vetted tutor list. Not a percentage. **Alex Tutor:** Next: what to do when the plan stops matching reality. You re-plan from today, not from November. - Previous lesson: [Changes without a committee, and a decision log](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/changes-without-a-committee.md) - Next lesson: [Re-plan from today](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/re-plan-from-today.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.