---
name: agile-liftoff
description: Use when asked to run an agile project liftoff — aligning a team on vision, objectives, stakeholders, and initial plan at project start — as distinct from an agile chartering session's working-agreement focus (see agile-charter) or a formal project charter document (see project-charter).
---

# Agile Liftoff

Liftoff is the initial stage of an agile project, where the team comes
together to define and align on the project's goals, objectives, and
initial plan — setting the foundation for the whole project by creating a
genuinely shared understanding of vision, goals, and plan before work
begins in earnest. The name conveys the idea directly: the project is
just getting off the ground, and the team needs to work together to
actually achieve liftoff and get moving in the right direction.

## General steps

- **Align on the project vision** — the whole team agrees on the overall
  vision, so everyone is genuinely working toward the same goal rather
  than each person's own interpretation of it.
- **Define project objectives** — identify the specific objectives the
  project must achieve to realize that vision (see [[smart-criteria]]
  for writing these well).
- **Identify project stakeholders** — everyone affected by the project,
  and their needs and expectations.
- **Create a high-level plan** — key milestones, deliverables, and
  activities required to reach the objectives.
- **Establish project governance** — roles and responsibilities,
  decision-making processes, and communication protocols for the
  project going forward.

## Who runs it

Typically facilitated by a project manager, who guides the team through
the liftoff activities and ensures everyone stays aligned and engaged
throughout — a facilitator matters here because genuine alignment (not
just information transfer) is the actual goal, and that's harder to
achieve without someone actively managing the conversation.

## How it differs from related practices

- **[[agile-charter]]** — overlaps significantly with liftoff, but
  agile chartering's emphasis is specifically on co-creating a *working
  agreement* (the rules, norms, and values governing the project) as a
  distinct deliverable, alongside vision/objectives; liftoff is the
  broader project-start activity that a chartering session can be one
  part of.
- **[[project-charter]]** — a *formal, written, approved* document;
  liftoff is the collaborative *activity* that might produce (or draw on)
  such a document, rather than the document itself.

## Common pitfalls

- **Treating liftoff as a status meeting rather than a genuine alignment
  activity** — the point is building real shared understanding, not just
  broadcasting a plan someone else already decided.
- **Skipping stakeholder identification** — a plan built without knowing
  who's actually affected risks missing requirements or expectations that
  surface expensively later.
- **No governance agreed at liftoff** — without established
  decision-making processes and communication protocols up front, the
  team improvises these under pressure once the project is already
  underway.

## Learn more

- [[agile-charter]] for the closely related working-agreement-focused chartering session.
- [[project-charter]] for the formal document counterpart.
- [[smart-criteria]] for writing the project objectives well.