II.
Methodology overview
Reference · livemethodology:shape-up
Shape Up overview
Basecamp's methodology for building products through fixed-time, variable-scope cycles. Emphasizes appetite-driven development (how much time to spend, not how long it will take), thoughtful upfront shaping, strategic betting by senior team, autonomous team execution, and hill charts for visual progress tracking. Features 6-week cycles with circuit breaker (no automatic extensions) and no backlogs.
Attributes
displayName
Shape Up
description
Basecamp's methodology for building products through fixed-time, variable-scope
cycles. Emphasizes appetite-driven development (how much time to spend, not how
long it will take), thoughtful upfront shaping, strategic betting by senior team,
autonomous team execution, and hill charts for visual progress tracking. Features
6-week cycles with circuit breaker (no automatic extensions) and no backlogs.
methodologyKind
agile
origin
Ryan Singer, Basecamp
yearIntroduced
2019
Outgoing edges
applies_to1
- domain:software-engineering·DomainSoftware Engineering
Incoming edges
follows_methodology1
- lib-process:shared--shape-up·LibraryProcessshape-up