Kickoff note, day 1 of sprint 18

Anonymized sample from a real sprint for a US investment analytics platform, 2026

What this is. The message I sent in the client’s chat channel on the morning the sprint started, with the written scope attached. It gives the short version first, puts the one urgent finding before the feature list, and names the delivery day and what it depends on. Names and amounts are replaced.

---

Good afternoon [Client],

Sprint 18 started today. The full scope is attached, and here is the short version.

The cloud bill comes first. My cloud login can read usage but not the bill itself, so I measured every metered resource from June to [date]. The recent changes add a few dollars a month at list prices. Almost all of it is the nightly pipeline, which went from 13 task hours in August to 48 in September. Backups add a little more. The database, the web container and the network gateway are the same size as before, and no burst credits were charged. If the bill rose by more than that, the cause is outside these changes. Once I can read the billing view I’ll name it by service and by day. The scope gives the two ways to grant that.

One item can’t wait for the rest. One old test script prints the database password, the cloud key and the Django key into its error text every night. I checked today and it ran every night for the last ten nights. The fix is built. The production steps are deleting that error, rotating the three secrets and retiring the cloud key. They need your go ahead and a quiet half hour, because the Django key rotation signs every user out once.

Part 1 finishes what you approved on [date]. Sprint 17 delivered your analyst’s three requests. The scope of [date] is built and tested on a branch, 683 tests passing, and nothing is live yet. I deploy it after your go ahead and shadow run all 345 scripts in the sandbox before the switch goes on. Part 1 also builds the 3M return on the fund cards and on each stock row, and the locked column headers. It moves the database disk from 10 GB to 20 GB and includes your passkey guide. That’s 36.5 hours.

Part 2 holds the three items you assigned to sprint 18, the 1,800 rows, the date rerun and the ad network. That’s 33.5 to 36.5 hours, and the ad work starts when you send the publisher ID.

What I need from you is in the last section of the scope. The go ahead on the exposed secrets and the billing access come first.

I’ll share progress mid week. I aim to deliver part 1 on [Monday of next week], if the go aheads arrive by Wednesday, and part 2 the week after.

Thank you, Michael