Every piece of work at Pecos Mutual takes one of three paths. Pick the right one early, because the path decides who does the work, how it is approved and how capacity is set aside for it.
What it is
| Run | Strategic project | Discretionary work | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Keep platforms healthy and available | Deliver a larger change the business chose on purpose | Improve an area a little at a time |
| Who does it | The team that owns the platform | A cross-functional project team | The static Home Team that owns the area |
| How it arrives | Incidents, alerts, the monthly Platform Health review | Idea intake, then Discovery | Light intake into the Home Team's backlog |
| Approval | None needed to respond; fixes follow normal change control | Gate 1, Gate 2 and Quarterly Planning sign-off | The Home Team's Product Owner orders the backlog |
| How it's delivered | Incident Management and Platform Health playbooks | Scrum, against quarterly milestones | Scrum, from the Home Team backlog |
How to tell which path an item takes
Ask these questions in order and stop at the first yes.
- Is something broken, degraded or at risk right now? It's Run. Follow Incident Management, or log it for the next Platform Health review.
- Does it fit inside one Home Team? It's Discretionary if all of these are true:
- one Home Team can deliver it alone, with no dependencies on other teams;
- it is size S or smaller, about 3 sprints of one team's work;
- it needs no new budget or headcount.
- Otherwise it's a strategic project. Start it at idea intake.
If you aren't sure, ask the Product Manager for the area. Moving an item from Discretionary to a strategic project later is normal, so it's fine to change your mind once you know more.
Home Teams and project teams
Home Teams are static. Each one owns a set of platforms and a business area for the long term, handles that area's Run work and delivers its Discretionary backlog.
Project teams are cross-functional teams formed for one strategic project. Their members come from Home Teams and return to them when the project ends. Capacity planning decides who joins and for how long.
Why it matters
- Run work protects policyholders and employees today, so it always comes first. Planning reserves a Run allowance for each Home Team before it commits capacity to Change. Our default allowance is 20% of a Home Team's capacity.
- Strategic projects get full Discovery and Planning because they are expensive to get wrong.
- Discretionary work stays light so Home Teams can keep improving their areas without waiting for a quarterly cycle.
How it connects
- Strategic projects follow the Change lifecycle: Discovery, then Planning, then Delivery.
- Both project teams and Home Teams deliver with the same Scrum practices.
- Resource and capacity planning sets the Run allowance and the split between Home Team and project work each quarter.