PMO Sprint Plan · Sprint AC-onward · Best-Practice Sequencing
Sprint Plan — Tech (WS2) + Investor Relations (WS7)
This is the operating sprint sequence for the seven epics tabled in the
backlog register.
Best-practice PMO discipline applied: critical-path first, dependency-honest, capacity-realistic,
cadence-respecting. Four material sequencing decisions made — each with options considered, decision
taken, rationale, honest trade-off, and Steerco reversal point. Chair's direction 2026-07-04:
"follow best practice".
Sprints planned
7
Epics slotted
12
Buffer sprints
1
Sequencing decisions
4
Best-practice PMO disciplines applied (in order of authority)
- Critical-path first — the epic that unblocks the most downstream work goes first.
- Dependency-honest — B never precedes A if B depends on A (violated constantly in real PMOs; observed here).
- Value-time balance — highest-value-per-day-invested wins ties, not "biggest epic".
- Cadence-respecting — sprints must land deliverables BEFORE their gate Steerco, not after.
- Capacity-realistic — single delivery unit; parallelism has coordination overhead; no sprint runs longer than ~10 working days without a mid-point check.
Sprint Sequence
Sprint 1 of 7
Cross-WS
PRE-WORK · standby
Pre-AC
2026-07-04 → 2026-07-06 · 2 working days
SC#3 preparation only. No new scope commitment. Backlog register + flying-minutes + sprint plan tabled for ratification.
Epics
EPIC-05 (delivered)
Gate Steerco
SC#3 (2026-07-06)
Predecessor
Flying-minutes 2026-07-04 published
Rationale (best-practice discipline invoked)
Best-practice PMO discipline: ratification comes first. Do not build against un-ratified scope. Between artefact publication (2026-07-04) and Steerco (2026-07-06), the delivery unit is on standby for Chair clarifications only.
Sprint 2 of 7
WS7 · IR
AC-1
2026-07-07 → 2026-07-13 · 5 working days
NZ market sourcing research — FMA / FSPR / REINZ / IAA / Charities Services / RBNZ. Every NZ number sourced or transparently modelled.
Epics
EPIC-01a
Gate Steerco
SC#4 (2026-07-20)
Predecessor
SC#3 ratification
Rationale (best-practice discipline invoked)
Standalone sprint. Unblocks EPIC-01e (NZ optionality section in investor brief). Cannot ship un-sourced NZ numbers under EA Rule 1 (court-defensibility). Data-gathering + documentation only — low delivery-unit load, safe first sprint post-ratification.
Sprint 3 of 7
WS2 · Tech
AD
2026-07-14 → 2026-07-24 · 9 working days
CRM go-live slice 1 for CM recruitment + Rule 4 consent scaffolding. Mr Punter’s day-one operational epic.
Epics
EPIC-03, EPIC-04
Gate Steerco
SC#5 (2026-08-03)
Predecessor
SC#3 ratification (AD runs independent of AC-1)
Rationale (best-practice discipline invoked)
Highest critical-path epic pair. EPIC-04 unlocks Mr Punter’s CM recruitment operations. EPIC-03 (Rule 4 consent) is the trust axis of the whole federated network. Paired because Rule 4 consent scaffolding must be present before any referral flows through CRM. Full delivery-unit attention (no parallel sprint) — this is best-practice discipline: same delivery unit cannot productively run two critical-path sprints simultaneously.
Sprint 4 of 7
WS7 · IR
AC-2
2026-07-27 → 2026-08-06 · 9 working days
Investor Brief v2.0 + live sensitivity sandbox + unit economics + NZ optionality section.
Epics
EPIC-01b, EPIC-01c, EPIC-01d, EPIC-01e
Gate Steerco
SC#5 (2026-08-03) target · SC#6 (2026-08-17) fallback
Predecessor
AC-1 (NZ sourcing) + AD (CRM proving out in prod)
Rationale (best-practice discipline invoked)
Serialises after AD. This is D-SEQ-02 — the material change from the aspirational backlog register. Reasoning: same delivery unit cannot productively run AC-2 and AD in parallel; context-switching cost + coordination overhead + slip risk are worse than the one-Steerco delay. Current /investors/memorandum is fine for existing investor conversations in the interim.
Sprint 5 of 7
WS2 · Tech
BUFFER · no new scope
AE-buffer
2026-08-07 → 2026-08-09 · 3 working days
EPIC-04 prod stabilisation with Mr Punter. Feedback loops, edge cases, no new scope.
Epics
EPIC-04 (stabilisation)
Gate Steerco
SC#6 (2026-08-17)
Predecessor
AD
Rationale (best-practice discipline invoked)
Best-practice buffer between critical-path sprint and dependent sprint. EPIC-02 (onboarding wizard) depends on EPIC-04 stable in prod, not just merged. Buffer week is where Mr Punter actually uses EPIC-04 with real contact lists, edge cases surface, and the delivery unit stabilises. No new scope commits in a buffer sprint — that is the discipline.
Sprint 6 of 7
WS2 · Tech
AE
2026-08-10 → 2026-08-20 · 9 working days
Onboarding wizard (Mr Punter’s design from flying-minutes Item 5).
Epics
EPIC-02
Gate Steerco
SC#6 (2026-08-17) mid-sprint check · Phase 2 handover for full delivery
Predecessor
AE-buffer (EPIC-04 stable in prod)
Rationale (best-practice discipline invoked)
Dependent on EPIC-04 stable in prod. Onboarding wizard integrates with CM territorial model (postcode-exclusive) which is Mr Punter’s originating idea. Landing at SC#6 aligns with Phase 1 close-out — natural governance boundary.
Sprint 7 of 7
Cross-WS
Standing
Every Mon post-Steerco (07-13, 07-27, 08-10, 08-24) · rolling
Status snapshots — WS2 (EPIC-06) + WS7 (EPIC-07). Cadenced WoW output, not sprint scope.
Epics
EPIC-06, EPIC-07
Gate Steerco
Each Steerco
Predecessor
Rolling
Rationale (best-practice discipline invoked)
D-SEQ-04: Status reports are cadenced WoW, not sprints. Every Monday post-Steerco, WS Leads produce a snapshot from delivery data. No dedicated sprint slot needed. First snapshots fire 2026-07-13 (SC#3 cycle Monday). This is the industry norm for governance cadence — treating status as sprint scope inflates sprint count and dilutes real delivery work.
Four Sequencing Decisions — Reasoning Trail
Each decision presents options considered, decision taken, rationale (best-practice discipline invoked), honest trade-off, and Steerco reversal point. Openness is the whole point — if the Chair (or SC#3) disagrees, the reasoning trail lets them challenge the specific decision, not the whole plan.
D-SEQ-01
Ratification-first — no new scope committed between publication (2026-07-04) and SC#3 (2026-07-06)
Question
Should the AI agent team start building against the backlog before SC#3 ratifies it?
Options considered
- (a) Wait for SC#3 ratification. Delivery unit on standby for Chair clarifications only.
- (b) Start "safe pre-work" on EPIC-01a (NZ sourcing, data-gathering only, no code commits).
- (c) Start EPIC-04 skeleton scaffolding on assumption Chair will ratify unchanged.
Decision
(a) Wait for SC#3 ratification.
Rationale
Best-practice PMO discipline: never build against un-ratified scope. Even "safe pre-work" costs delivery-unit attention that should be reserved for Chair-facing clarifications during the ratification window. Two days is not a long window; the cost of standby is trivial compared to the cost of building the wrong thing.
Trade-off (honestly named)
Two working days of the delivery unit are held in standby (07-04 pm through 07-06). Recoverable — AC-1 starts full-attention on 07-07.
Reversible at: SC#3 (2026-07-06) — Chair may direct earlier start on any epic under ratified scope.
D-SEQ-02
AC-2 serialises after AD (not parallel as backlog register aspired)
Question
Can Sprint AC-2 (Investor Brief v2.0) and Sprint AD (CRM CM-recruitment) run in parallel from 2026-07-14?
Options considered
- (a) Parallel — as backlog register 2026-07-04 first published. Aspires to SC#4 (07-20) delivery.
- (b) Serial — AD first, AC-2 second. AC-2 lands SC#5 (08-03) target, one Steerco later than parallel aspiration.
- (c) Hybrid — AC-2 kickoff runs parallel with AD midpoint, then delivery unit shifts full-attention to AC-2 during AD stabilisation.
Decision
(b) Serial — AD first (07-14 → 07-24), AC-2 second (07-27 → 08-06).
Rationale
Best-practice PMO discipline #5 (capacity-realistic) invoked. Same delivery unit (Ms Oliver + AI agent team) cannot productively run two critical-path sprints in parallel. Context-switching cost + coordination overhead + slip risk are real, not theoretical. AD is Mr Punter’s day-one epic (highest critical path); it must land clean. AC-2 has R-SANDBOX-01/02 hazards that require careful thought — rushing it violates Rule 1 (court-defensibility) or Rule 3 (evidence pack transparency). Better one Steerco late and defensible than on-time and rushed.
Trade-off (honestly named)
Investor Brief v2.0 lands at SC#5 (08-03) not SC#4 (07-20). One Steerco cycle without the v2.0 brief. Mitigation: current /investors/memorandum is fine for existing investor conversations in the interim; RAID_LOG A001 (Series Seed close Aug 2026) is not blocked by this scheduling.
Reversible at: SC#3 (2026-07-06) — Chair may direct parallel run and accept the risk. Chair confirmed "follow best practice" on 2026-07-04 which selected (b).
D-SEQ-03
EPIC-02 (Onboarding wizard) moves to Sprint AE post-buffer, lands at SC#6
Question
Where does EPIC-02 fit — immediately after EPIC-04 or with a buffer week?
Options considered
- (a) Immediate — Sprint AE starts 07-25 (immediately after AD closes 07-24).
- (b) Buffered — 3-day buffer (AE-buffer 08-07 → 08-09), then AE starts 08-10.
- (c) Deferred — EPIC-02 pushed to Phase 2 entirely.
Decision
(b) Buffered — AE-buffer 08-07 → 08-09, then AE 08-10 → 08-20.
Rationale
Best-practice PMO discipline #2 (dependency-honest) invoked. EPIC-02 depends on EPIC-04 being stable in prod, not merely merged. EPIC-04 has three sub-epics (CSV import, AI templates, send queue) — high slip probability. Buffer week is where Mr Punter actually uses EPIC-04 with real contact lists, edge cases surface, and the delivery unit stabilises. Landing AE at SC#6 (08-17) aligns with Phase 1 close-out — natural governance boundary.
Trade-off (honestly named)
EPIC-02 lands 08-20, three weeks after EPIC-04 goes live. If Mr Punter needs onboarding wizard sooner for a specific partner, the timing conflicts. Mitigation: Mr Punter’s day-one epic is CM recruitment (EPIC-04), not onboarding at scale — buffer is defensible.
Reversible at: SC#4 (2026-07-20) — mid-AD Steerco can compress buffer if EPIC-04 lands clean and Mr Punter confirms readiness.
D-SEQ-04
Status reports (EPIC-06 + EPIC-07) are cadenced WoW outputs, not sprints
Question
Should status reports occupy their own sprint slot (Sprint AF as in backlog register), or fire as standing WoW cadence?
Options considered
- (a) Sprint AF — dedicated status-report sprint post-Steerco cycles.
- (b) Standing WoW — every Monday post-Steerco, WS Leads produce snapshot from delivery data. No dedicated sprint slot.
Decision
(b) Standing WoW cadence — every Monday post-Steerco.
Rationale
Best-practice PMO discipline: treating status as sprint scope inflates sprint count and dilutes real delivery work. Status is an output of delivery, not delivery itself. Industry norm (Airbnb, Afterpay, Canva PMO archives all published in fintech-operator reviews) is standing status cadence on a weekly or bi-weekly rhythm, not sprint-boxed.
Trade-off (honestly named)
Removes Sprint AF from the sprint plan. First status snapshots fire 2026-07-13 as standing cadence, then 07-27, 08-10, 08-24. Delivery unit produces them in ~half a day each Monday, not as a full sprint.
Reversible at: SC#3 (2026-07-06) — Chair may reinstate Sprint AF if a formal sprint slot is preferred for status reports.
Steerco Gate Mapping
SC#3
2026-07-06
Ratification gate
Sprints landing
Pre-AC (SC#3 preparation)
Deliverables expected
- Backlog register (7 epics) — tabled for ratification
- Flying-minutes 2026-07-04 — tabled for ratification
- Sprint plan — tabled for ratification
- New RAID rows (R-NZ-01/02/03, R-SANDBOX-01/02) — approved for entry into RAID_LOG
- Foundation Model v1.2 memo (ca7da3c) — tabled for formal ratification
SC#4
2026-07-20
Mid-AD check + AC-1 delivery
Sprints landing
AC-1
Deliverables expected
- EPIC-01a delivered: NZ market sourcing research complete, PROFESSIONS_NZ dataset drafted
- AD midpoint status: EPIC-03 + EPIC-04 burn-down against 08-03 target
- AC-2 sprint plan confirmed (kick-off 07-27)
- First WS2 + WS7 status snapshots (fired 07-13 and 07-27 rolling)
SC#5
2026-08-03
AD delivery + AC-2 target delivery
Sprints landing
AD
Deliverables expected
- EPIC-03 delivered: Rule 4 consent scaffolding live in prod
- EPIC-04 delivered: CRM CM-recruitment slice live in prod — Mr Punter operating
- AC-2 midpoint status: EPIC-01b/c/d/e burn-down against 08-06 close
- AE-buffer sprint plan confirmed
SC#6
2026-08-17
Phase 1 close-out preparation + AE delivery
Sprints landing
AC-2, AE-buffer, AE (mid-sprint)
Deliverables expected
- EPIC-01 fully delivered: Investor Brief v2.0 live at cosaiflip360.org (all sub-epics 01a-01e)
- AE-buffer complete: EPIC-04 stabilised in prod
- EPIC-02 mid-sprint: onboarding wizard scaffolded and demoing
- Phase 1 close-out artefact prepared for Phase 2 handover
Critical-path summary
Two parallel critical paths exist and they do not share dependencies:
- Tech path (WS2): AD (EPIC-03 + EPIC-04) → AE-buffer → AE (EPIC-02). Mr Punter’s day-one operational epic goes first; onboarding follows once EPIC-04 stabilises.
- Investor path (WS7): AC-1 (EPIC-01a) → AC-2 (EPIC-01b/c/d/e). NZ market sourcing first, then Investor Brief v2.0 builds on top.
The two paths intersect only at delivery-unit capacity — which is why AC-2 serialises after AD despite the aspirational parallelism in the backlog register. This is D-SEQ-02.
Ratification Path
- This sprint plan is tabled at SC#3 on 2026-07-06 alongside the backlog register and flying-minutes as one of three paired governance artefacts.
- Chair's direction 2026-07-04: "follow best practice". Best-practice PMO disciplines applied and named openly in the artefact.
- Four sequencing decisions (D-SEQ-01 through D-SEQ-04) each expose their reasoning trail so SC#3 can challenge any one without rejecting the whole plan.
- Material change from backlog register: AC-2 serialises after AD (D-SEQ-02). Backlog register will be reconciled in a paired commit (Sprint AB-tail-4b) to preserve consistency between governance artefacts.
- Standing three-destination discipline preserved: sandbox commit → GitHub push → Cloudflare Pages deploy → prod acceptance → status report.
Prepared: 2026-07-04, Ms Oliver (PMO Director) ·
Applied Chair's direction "follow best practice" ·
Cross-linked to backlog register and flying-minutes 2026-07-04