CO Digital Firebreak week
What is a Firebreak in Software development cycle
A firebreak in Agile is a deliberately scheduled, time‑boxed pause in feature work for development teams that creates space for stabilising the system, improving quality and innovation.
Examples of activities for a breakbreak:
- high‑impact technical debt reduction, refactoring, testing, and small
- well scoped innovations related to the products Cabinet Office missions
- Security improvements
- cross teams and functions activities to enhance collaborations
In Cabinet Office Digital, the cadence of Firebreak is once a quarter and the duration is 1 week. The delivery managers of the Agile teams should coordinate with each other to align.
Firebreak activities can be an individual activity or a team activity.
Firebreak pitch:
The Firebreak Pitch is a dedicated session where individuals or teams present proposed activities for the firebreak week and recruit the right colleagues. You should prepare a concise two‑minute pitch outlining the objective, approach, expected outcomes, milestones, dependencies, and the support you are requesting, and present your plan and secure commitments for the Firebreak week.
Tips for a strong pitch
- Be clear on the objective and the value your activity will deliver during the firebreak
- Specify roles needed, expected effort, and time constraints
- Highlight dependencies and potential risks, along with mitigation
- Include concrete outcomes or proofs of concept you aim to produce
- End with a concrete call to action and how commitments will be tracked
Individuals and teams should seek informal consent from the team leads and line managers to work on the proposals during the firebreak week.
Firebreak week:
During the firebreak week, you may work on your own project or join a different team from your usual agile squad. Here are some tips to make your firebreak week efficient:
- Kickoff and planning: agree ways of working in our new team and desired outcomes for your projects
- Daily rituals: meet your team daily and report on progress, what you are going to work on and daily wash up.
- Remote working: make your team remote friendly. For example, set up google chat for your team, drop in meeting channels.
- Work towards the show and tell: ensure your team works towards the Firebreak show-and-tell.
Firebreak Show and Tell:
Firebreak Show and Tell is a concise session for individuals and teams to showcase the outcomes from the firebreak, share learnings, and secure alignment on next steps with stakeholders.
For a maximum 15-minute show-and-tell, use this structure:
- Acknowledgements: key collaborators and contributors
- What and why: state the objective, the problem addressed, and the value delivered
- Key achievements: list items completed or results achieved, with brief context
- Demo: present a live demonstration or a concise recorded demo if applicable.
- Recommended next steps: outline backlog items, owners, and timelines.
Support and operational work during firebreak week
During the firebreak week, teams are only required to do mission‑critical support and operational work, with non‑essential tasks deferred until after the firebreak.
The Agile Quad should agree a minimum support rota to ensure coverage of the platform, tools and product operations, maintaining continuity and reducing risk while enabling a smooth return to normal delivery.