Getting started

Most work is already a conversation. Somebody asks, somebody answers, a draft goes back and forth, and the useful part ends up spread across a chat app, an inbox and a few browser tabs nobody wants to close. Rally keeps that conversation in one place and puts an AI agent in it, so you, your teammates and the agent work on the same thing where everyone can see what happened.

Rally is a desktop app for the Mac. There is also an iPhone app for keeping up while you are away from your desk, and a lighter version that runs in a web browser for people someone has shared a conversation with. The Mac app is the one with everything in it, so that is where this chapter starts.

The agent inside Rally is also called Rally. That sounds confusing for about a day. After that you will say "ask Rally" and mean the agent, and "open Rally" and mean the app, and nobody will be confused at all. Rally the agent reads, writes, searches the web, runs code, works in your other tools and makes documents. It does this in the open, inside a conversation your teammates can see and join.

The cast of characters#

A handful of words come up on nearly every page of this book. Here they are, from the biggest to the smallest.

• An Organization is your team's home in Rally. Its members, its connections to other tools and all of its work live inside it.
• A Space is a group of Channels. Use one for a team, a client or a long-running project. Every Organization starts with one Space, called General.
• A Channel is one conversation about one piece of work. This is where you talk to Rally and your teammates, and where most of your time goes.
• A Breakout is a side conversation that branches off a Channel, for chasing an idea without derailing the main thread.
• A Sidekick is a saved helper. You describe a job once, and it can run on a schedule, when something happens in another tool, or whenever you call on it.

If you remember only one picture, make it this: an Organization holds Spaces, a Space holds Channels, and a Channel can sprout Breakouts. Sidekicks are the helpers who come and go between them.

What this chapter covers#

This chapter has five short pages. You will install Rally and sign in, create or join an Organization, go through the guided setup, take a tour of the window, and then start your first Channel and give Rally something to do. Allow about as long as it takes a kettle to boil, twice.

Start with Install Rally and sign in.