Release Planning Techniques
Forecasting provides information required for release planning. Similar to forecasting techniques, there are release planning techniques that Scrum Teams can use that are complementary to Scrum. There are benefits and challenges with each. What is important is that the team focuses their conversations and plans on what they are trying to achieve with each release. They should start with the Why? and considering the Evidence-Based Management concept of Unrealized Value, which is the “satisfaction gap” between the outcomes that customers currently experience and the outcomes that they would like to experience.
How will this release help the team satisfy the satisfaction gap that customers currently have?
Release Planning Questions to Explore
Most people consider release planning as merely a tally and forecast of when certain Product Backlogs items could be delivered. However, Scrum Teams can use release planning in a way that focuses on delivering value to customers effectively by also exploring questions such as:
- What are we trying to achieve with each release? What customer and user outcomes are we aiming for?
- What features might fulfill those outcomes that we should include (and which ones should we not include)?
- What is our forecast? When should/ can we release what?
- What will we measure to validate the value of the release?
- Are our stakeholders and customers able and ready to adopt the changes we want to release?
- Are there any dependencies we need to take in consideration?
- What potential obstacles could delay our release?
- Who needs to be involved?
- Is everyone, including stakeholders, on the same page?
- How do we communicate/ manage expectations?
Story Mapping
User Story Mapping is a technique developed by Jeff Patton that is described in his book, User Story Mapping: Discover the Whole Story, Build the Right Product. A Scrum Team can use story mapping to develop a multidimensional view of their Product Backlog as it links together a user’s journey using a product, the work that is required to satisfy these activities and how those user stories can fit into Sprints and releases.
Learn more about how to use Story Mapping for your Product Releases.
Road Mapping
Roadmaps are a technique that Scrum Teams use for planning releases. For roadmaps to be useful for a Scrum Team, they should be incomplete, allowing the Product Owner to make decisions as the team adapts to what they learn from each release.
The roadmap then serves as a flexible tool to discuss vision, goals, strategies and opportunities instead of a fixed list of work for x amount of time. You can consider a roadmap to be an agile anti-pattern or a trap when it is used merely as a different visualization of a project or program plan.
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