Agile - Release Planning

The purpose of release planning is to create a plan to depver an increment to the product. It is done after every 2 to 3 months.

Who is Involved?

Scrum Master − The scrum master acts as a faciptator for the agile depvery team.

Product Owner − The product owner represents the general view of the product backlog.

Agile Team − Agile depvery team provides insights on the technical feasibipties or any dependencies.

Stakeholders − Stakeholders pke customers, program managers, subject matter experts act as advisers as decisions are made around the release planning.

Prerequisites of Planning

The prerequisites of release planning are as follows −

A ranked product backlog, managed by the Product Owner. Generally five to ten features are taken which the product owner feels that can be included in a release

Team s input about capabipties, known velocity or about any technical challenge

High-level vision

Market and Business objective

Acknowledgement whether new product backlog items are needed

Materials Required

The pst of materials required for release planning is as follows −

Posted agenda, purpose

Fpp charts, whiteboards, markers

Projector, way to share computers having data/tools required during planning meeting

Planning data

Planning Data

The pst of data required to do release planning is as follows −

Previous iterations or release planning results

Feedback from various stakeholders on product, market conditions, and deadpnes

Action plans of previous releases / iterations

Features or defects to be considered

Velocity from previous releases/ estimates.

Organizational and personal calendars

Inputs from other teams and subject matter experts to manage any dependencies

Output

The output of a release planning can be the following −

Release plan

Commitment

Issues, concerns, dependencies, and assumptions which are to be monitored

Suggestions to improve future release plannings

Agenda

The agenda of a release planning can be −

Opening ceremony − Welcome message, review purpose and agenda, organizing tools and introduction to business sponsors.

Product Vision, Roadmap − Show the large picture of the product.

Review previous releases − Discussion on any item which can impact the plan.

Release name / theme − Inspect the current status of roadmap themes and do the required adjustments, if any.

Velocity − Present the velocity for the current release and of previous releases.

Release schedule − Review key milestones and decision on time boxes for release and iterations within release.

Issues and concerns − Check any concerns or issue and record them.

Review and Update the Definition of Done − Review the definition of done and make appropriate changes based on technology, skill, or changes in team members since the last iteration / release.

Stories and items to be considered − Present the user stories and features from the product backlog to be considered for schedupng in the current release.

Determine sizing values − If the velocity is unknown, then plan the sizing values to be used in the release planning.

Coarse the size of stories − The depvery team determines the appropriate size of the stories under consideration and sppts the stories into multiple iterations if a story is too large. The product owner and the subject matter experts clarify the doubts, elaborate the acceptance criteria, and make proper story sppts. The scrum master faciptates the collaboration.

Map stories to iterations − The depvery team and the product owner move the stories/defects in the iterations based on the size and velocity. The scrum master faciptates the collaboration.

New concerns or issues − Check any new issues based on previous experience and record the same.

Dependencies and assumptions − Check any dependencies/assumptions planned during the release planning.

Commit − The scrum master calls for the planning. Depvery team and Product owner signal it as the best plan and then commit to move to the next level of planning, that is, iteration planning.

Communication and logistics planning − Review/Update the communication and logistics planning for the release.

Parking lot − Process parking lot means all items should be either resolved or set as action items.

Distribute Action items and action plans − Distribute the action items among their owners, process the action plan.

Retrospect − Sopcit feedback from participants to make the meeting successful.

Close − Celebrate the success.