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  <mainDescription>&lt;p>&#xD;
    The purpose in this phase is to achieve concurrence among all stakeholders on the lifecycle objectives for the project.&#xD;
&lt;/p>&#xD;
&lt;p>&#xD;
    There are four objectives of the Inception phase that clarify the scope, project objectives, and feasibility of the&#xD;
    intended solution &lt;a class=&quot;elementlinkwithusertext&quot;&#xD;
    href=&quot;./../../../core.mgmt.common.base/guidances/supportingmaterials/references.mgmt_D80619F3.html#KRO03&quot;&#xD;
    guid=&quot;_JlTPUM6aEdyuBO4ZIzcyig&quot;>[KRO03]&lt;/a>:&#xD;
&lt;/p>&#xD;
&lt;ol>&#xD;
    &lt;li>&#xD;
        &lt;p>&#xD;
            &lt;strong>Understand what to build.&lt;/strong> Determine an overall vision, including the scope of the system and&#xD;
            its boundaries. Identify the stakeholders: who is interested in this system and what are their success&#xD;
            criteria?&#xD;
        &lt;/p>&#xD;
    &lt;/li>&#xD;
    &lt;li>&#xD;
        &lt;p>&#xD;
            &lt;strong>Identify key system functionality.&lt;/strong> Decide which requirements are most critical.&#xD;
        &lt;/p>&#xD;
    &lt;/li>&#xD;
    &lt;li>&#xD;
        &lt;p>&#xD;
            &lt;strong>Determine at least one possible solution.&lt;/strong> Assess whether the vision is technically&#xD;
            feasible.&amp;nbsp;This may involve identifying a candidate high-level architecture or doing technical prototypes,&#xD;
            or both.&#xD;
        &lt;/p>&#xD;
    &lt;/li>&#xD;
    &lt;li>&#xD;
        &lt;p>&#xD;
            &lt;strong>Understand&lt;/strong> the high-level estimate for cost, schedule, and risks associated with the project.&#xD;
        &lt;/p>&#xD;
    &lt;/li>&#xD;
&lt;/ol>&#xD;
&lt;h4>&#xD;
    Key considerations&#xD;
&lt;/h4>&#xD;
&lt;p>&#xD;
    Projects may have one or more iterations in the Inception phase. These are among the reasons for multiple iterations:&#xD;
&lt;/p>&#xD;
&lt;ul>&#xD;
    &lt;li>&#xD;
        Project is large, and it is hard to define its scope&#xD;
    &lt;/li>&#xD;
    &lt;li>&#xD;
        Unprecedented system&#xD;
    &lt;/li>&#xD;
    &lt;li>&#xD;
        Too many stakeholders with competing needs and complex relationships&#xD;
    &lt;/li>&#xD;
    &lt;li>&#xD;
        Major technical risks demand the creation of a prototype or proof of concept&#xD;
    &lt;/li>&#xD;
&lt;/ul>&#xD;
&lt;p>&#xD;
    There are some commonly observed&amp;nbsp;counterproductive patterns during the Inception phase. Some teams postpone&#xD;
    providing estimates until they analyze the entire domain and have written a large amount of requirements documentation.&#xD;
    This behavior often leads to &quot;analysis paralysis.&quot; Another pattern is poor planning of Inception iterations. Avoid such&#xD;
    patterns by planning iterations during Inception in a way that iterations are risk-driven, include early integration&#xD;
    and testing, and produce a product increment that you can demonstrate to stakeholders. By default, have one&#xD;
    (potentially short) iteration in Inception to avoid analysis paralysis.&#xD;
&lt;/p></mainDescription>
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