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Vision, Roadmap, and Release PlanningSupplemental Materials for a Product Owner

Jessica Komarek and Sara Alterisio

5 Levels of Agile Release Planning

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Vision

Roadmap

Release

Iteration

Daily

What, Who, Why, When, Constraints, Assumptions

Releases

Iterations/Sprints

User Stories

Tasks

• This material focuses on the top 3 levels

• Often planned at the "Product" and "Team" level –PO should be clear on the "Product" level plans to best drive "Team" level planning

• These levels of planning are often shared by a “Product Management” team, especially in larger organizations

Why do we need a Vision?

• Understand the Big Picture

• Everyone Working Toward a Common Goal

• Shared Understanding of the Problem We’re Trying To Solve

• Develop Roadmap

• High level Product Backlog

• Business Value Assessment


Release Roadmaps


• Release Roadmaps help set “scope” over a series of releases

• Some reasons for Release Roadmaps:

– Becomes a filter for user story creation and

backlog prioritization

– Gains consensus around the direction

– Avoids the “last/loudest” priority problem

– Prevents “too large” releases early in program

(everything plus the kitchen sink…)

• Tip: Start with a “minimum viable product” to get functionality into

customer hands as as quickly as possible to establish a feedback

loop to help drive future work

• Caution: A roadmap is not a contract…it will likely change over

time

Roadmap: Example Template

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• Release date, driven by:– An event or specific dates/schedule– Level of functionality needed

• Name of Release / Version– Make name meaningful– Indicate where release will happen:– Internal delivery to a platform, other team,

or release train– Distribution to Production

• Theme– Compelling reason to use by whom?– Significant business value to the organization

• Planned feature set– High-level descriptions of system services

that delivers value to the user/customer

Name of Release / Version

Release date

Key Features:1. Feature A2. Feature B3. Feature C

Theme: Prove “?”

For <stakeholder X>, this release provides <what value>

Example Release Roadmap


Full CC exp’n/Mobile POC

R4 (to PROD)

1. Monitor performance

2. Run mobile POC

with client subset

(TBD)

3. Revise forms with

critical/moderate

improvements as

needed

• For remaining client subgroups, submit claim request for autos via call center

• Pilot POC for mobile with subgroup #1

June Aug Oct

1. Update/expand 2

forms with feedback

2. Auto validate

processing

confirmation

3. Auto send email

confirmation

4. Validate/revise

training materials

• For client subgroups 2-

4, submit claim request

for autos via call center

1. Revise forms with

critical/moderate

improvements and

bug fixes

2. Validate

performance

3. Establish POC for

mobile (customer

driven) claim

submission

• For client subgroups 5-

10, submit claim request

for autos via call center

• Create mobile Proof of

Concept (POC)

First CC expansion

R2 (to PROD)

Second CC expansion

R3 (to PROD)

April

1. Simple 2 forms (data

entry, data validation)

2. Send data to sub

system to initiate

processing

3. Validate manually in

sub system

4. Manually send email

confirmation

• For client subgroup

#1, submit claim

request for autos via

call center

Pilot Call Center (CC)

R1 (to PROD)

Fe

atu

res

Wh

o/W

ha

t

1. Decide on reasonable value and how long it will take to deliver.

2. Communicate expectations with stakeholders.

– Often fed into other strategic planning activities across the organization

3. Guidepost toward which the team can progress and context for a set of sprints to culminate into a satisfying whole.

Why Plan Releases?


1. Prioritized and estimated backlog

2. The (estimated) velocity of the Scrum team

3. Conditions of satisfactions (schedule, scope, resources)

Inputs to Release Planning


Velocity in Planning


• Feature-Driven: Ready for release when specified features are complete

• Date-Driven: Scope is determined by how many features can be completed in the specified time

Determining Release Plans


Sum of all features

Expected velocity

Expected velocity * number of sprints

Release Planning Steps


Determine conditions of satisfaction

Estimate the user stories

Prioritize user stories

Estimate velocity

Select an iteration length

Select stories and a release

date

• Taken from: “Agile Estimating and Planning” by Mike Cohn

Do in any sequence

Notes:

• Many organizations pre-determine release strategy and need to coordinate amongst many teams

• Pega plans releases at the Epic level

Feature-driven or date-driven?

Documents

Vision, Roadmap, and Release Planning - Pega › system › files › pdfs › Scrum Basics - Vi… · 5 Levels of Agile Release Planning 00 Month 0000 Footer (Edit footer for all