Applying Pega Express Phases

In the Pega Express phased delivery approach, the Pega Express best practices are applied over a cycle of four phases. In the following image, click the + icons to learn more about the four phases of Pega Express:

The first of the four Pega Express phases is Discover. The objective of the Discover phase is to set up the project for success so that it is outcome-focused, solves the business problem, and meets the business objectives.

As a Pega Business Architect, you use your skills as an analyst, problem solver, translator, and thought leader to understand the following:

• The business objectives, outcomes, and value that are expected from the project .
• The associated customer journeys and breakdown into the Microjourneys®.
• The prioritization of the Microjourneys into Minimum Lovable Product roadmap (MLP) releases as part of the project's MLP roadmap.

As a Business Architect, you run a Design sprint to incorporate Design thinking, a Pega Express best practice focused on a creative, human-centered approach to problem solving, into the project. A Design Sprint pulls together individuals with various business, technical, and Pega Platform™ application experience in order to identify the core business problem and possible solutions.

As a Business Architect, you might also be involved in some or all of the following activities associated with the Discover phase:

• Define your Microjourneys and your MLP.
• Create the Case Type Backlog to capture the key building blocks  in terms of the three pillars of Pega Platform™: Microjourneys (Case Life Cycle), Personas and Channels, Data and Interfaces.
• Estimate and size your project using the Case Type Backlog spreadsheet or App Studio Estimator tool.
• Create a Day one Live Plan.
• Get ready to start the project.

The second phase of Pega Express, Prepare, marks the project's start. The objective of the Prepare phase is to prepare the Business team to deliver the Application Design to the IT team as part of the project's Build phase.   

During Prepare, the project team works to understand the Microjourney that forms the first Minimum Lovable Product (MLP), as defined in the Discover phase.

The key to the success of the Prepare phase is achieving alignment early with the business stakeholders on the end-to-end Application Design. To ensure you achieve alignment across the Business team, you: 

• Apply the Pega Express best practice of Directly Capture Objectives (DCO) to collaborate with your Product Owner, Business stakeholders, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), User experience (UX) designers, and other IT stakeholders such as the Lead System Architect (LSA), to agree on the high-level Application Design. 

• Identify any key enterprise, business, and application features that are good candidates for modular reuse 

• Use Pega Platform  to capture or refine the three pillars: Microjourneys (Case Life Cycle), Personas and Channels, Data and Interfaces

• Create an initial backlog of user stories that are ready for the Build phase 

As a Business Architect, you also run a Design sprints in the Prepare Phase in order to fast-track your project team's progress.

The third of the four Pega Express phases is Build. 

Using Scrum, the Build phase starts with developing the user stories that are prioritized for the first sprint, using Agile Workbench, which is an agile tool in App Studio.

To keep creating user stories for future sprints, you collaborate with the Product Owner to run DCO sessions that capture new business requirements as well as feedback on previously-document business requirements from Business team stakeholders.

As a Pega Business Architect, you continue to develop and refine the user stories contained the project backlog in close collaboration with your Product Owner, SMEs, UX designers, System Architects (SAs), Quality Analysts (QAs), and Business team representatives.

Adopt is the fourth of the Pega Express phases. The Adopt phase is where the business readiness activities come together.

Stakeholders from the project team conduct a rigorous review of the application functionality to ensure the application is ready for go-live​. After go-live, designated members of the IT and Business teams monitor application performance using Pega Predictive Diagnostic Cloud (PDC) to prove that it achieves the business outcomes​.  

As a Business Architect, you finalize your plans with the Product Owner, Business team, and select members of IT for the start of the next MLP​ release. 

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