Shape Up Guidelines

A shared playbook to ensure we respect the methodology, deliver with quality, and communicate clearly.

General Philosophy

Shape Up is designed to help us focus, make meaningful progress, and avoid chaos.
We operate in 8-week cycles: 6 weeks for shaping/building and 2 weeks for cooldown.
This structure is not optional. It exists to reduce stress, avoid endless workstreams, and deliver testable increments on time.

“Appetite over estimates. Concrete over abstract. Shaped work over backlogs.” – Shape Up, Basecamp

Ceremonies

1. Bottom-up Shape proposals

Here the dev and design team bring proposals to address tech and design debt

2. Shape Kick-Off

Product owner defines which tasks/features need to be evaluated during the cooldown period

3. Pitch Review

Team presents appetite for tasks to be inserted in the shape. Each item must have a pitch with related HLD/LLD if necessary In this meeting we also fine tune appetite on team capacity. The output of this meeting is a list of tasks/features that will be part of the shape

3. Shape Rescoping

Every two weeks the team present the progress on shape items and in case they believe there is a need for rescoping, propose it. At the end of the meeting is clear what has been rescoped ( removed/added ) into the shape

4. Shape Review

In this meeting team show the final result of the shape, the deliverable is a beta release in the demo environment, that can be tested.

✅ What You Must Do

1. Shaping the Work

Define a clear scope: intended outcome, technical boundaries, constraints, and trade-offs.
Validate feasibility: resolve all major unknowns before committing to a pitch. HLD is part of shaping.
Communicate blockers early: uncertainty must be made explicit during shaping.
No "we'll figure it out later": shape the work, or don’t build it.

2. Building the Work

Never start unshaped work.
Rescope actively during the cycle, not in the last few days.
By the end of the Shape phase, and before entering Cooldown, we must have a consolidated release ready for demo. This version must be installable, verifiable, and representative of the shaped scope, in conformity with DoD.

3. During Cooldown

No new development work.
Focus on: bug fixing, testing, and shaping next cycles.
Cooldown is intentional time to stabilize and prepare—not backlog filler.

4. Communication

Raise red flags early. Silence delays everything.
Share daily progress: don’t let others guess.
Rescoping is mandatory, not optional. Use it.

❌ What You Must Not Do

1. No Unbounded Tasks

Do not start building from vague or unshaped work. Ask for clarity.

2. No Cooldown Hacking

Don’t sneak in new features during cooldown. Cooldown is sacred.

3. No Silent Rescoping

Don’t drop scope silently at the end. Raise it when it becomes a risk during rescoping meetings.

4. No Incomplete Releases

A release must be testable. “Almost done” ≠ done.

Definition of Done

Each task and MR must be compliant with DoD before being reviewed and merged.

Accountability

Each cycle has an Owner:
- Tracks progress
- Facilitates rescoping
- Escalates risks
Each task has a Responsible:
- Ensures clarity
- Tracks completion

Shape Up