The Ultimate Guide to Agile Release Planning

The Ultimate Guide to Agile Release Planning

Agile release planning is the process of coordinating all of your team’s work to get as much value as possible shipped in the upcoming release. It’s a lot more than just picking what you will build in the next iteration. And it’s way more than how you might have done things before, with waterfall or traditional project management. At its core, agile release planning is about aligning everyone’s efforts so that you can deliver something great on time and with confidence that it meets the business needs. This blog post will help you understand why release planning is necessary for Agile teams, walk you through some best practices for an effective release plan, explain how to create one from scratch step by step, and provide examples of both high-level and detailed release plans.

Why is Agile Release Planning important? #

Release planning is a critical part of the Scrum process because it allows you to see the big picture and understand how your work impacts the rest of the organisation. It helps you create a sustainable release plan and helps you avoid scope creep, which can be costly and can also put the entire release at risk of failure. A release plan should include all the things you need to do to get your product to your customers, like when you will build the software and who will build it. It should also include the expected completion dates of other activities that are required for your product, like marketing activities and training. Release planning is also helpful for the Product Owner because it allows them to prioritise the work for the release (i.e. what gets built and what doesn’t). It also gives the PO insight into how the team will build their product, which helps them avoid miscommunications and misunderstandings.

How to do Agile Release Planning – Step by step #

Before you can make an effective release plan, you need to make sure your team is properly set up to succeed. You also need to understand the key components of an effective release plan.

What does an effective Agile team look like? #

An effective Agile team has clearly defined roles, clear communication expectations, and a strong understanding of the purpose of the work they do. We’ll talk more about the roles below. But the main thing to remember is that before you can start planning, you need to make sure your team has their ducks in a row. Otherwise, your release planning efforts will be a waste of time.

What does an effective Agile release plan include? #

  • The product vision/roadmap – Why are you building this product? What problem does it solve for your customers? What does it look like?
  • Business goals for the release – Why does this product exist? How does it impact the business?
  • Release objectives – What do you want to accomplish with this release of the product?
  • Release timeline – When do you want to deliver this product? What can you build in the time you have?
  • Product backlog and sizing – What are the features you want to build? How big are they?
  • Release dependencies – What else needs to happen before you can release this product?
  • Risk assessment – What could go wrong with this release plan?
  • Recommended actions and follow-up – What’s the next step?

Guide to an effective Agile Release Plan #

There are many different ways to create a release plan, depending on what works best for your team. The important thing is to be thorough and intentional with each part of the plan. Here are some best practices to follow when creating an effective release plan.

Example of an effective release plan #

Ready to dive in? Let’s go through an example of how you might create an effective release plan for your next project. Let’s say you work on a team that builds software for a marketing company, and you are currently in the middle of a two-month Sprints. You have a product owner and a few stakeholders who want to see what you are working on, but they don’t have the details they need. And you have a whole bunch of work that needs to be done to get the product ready for release. What do you do? Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating an effective release plan that will get everyone on the same page and help you confidently deliver something great on time.

Part 1: Define Your Product Vision and Roadmap #

The first thing you want to do when creating an effective release plan is to understand your product vision and roadmap. These two things should be tied closely together. Your product vision provides a broad description of what your product does. It includes information about why it exists and who it’s for. Your product roadmap is a high-level plan of what you are going to build and when you are going to build it. It should inform stakeholders about the general direction of the product. Your product vision and roadmap will help you decide what to include in your release plan, which will be helpful as you move forward. A product vision and roadmap can be found in many places, like product backlogs and company decks.

Part 2: Identify Business Goals for the Release #

The next step in creating an effective release plan is to understand what your product’s business goals are. This will help you decide what to include in your release plan, which can help you make sure you are meeting the needs of your stakeholders. Business goals can be found in the same places as product vision and roadmap.

Part 3: Determine Release Objectives #

Release objectives are goals that are specific to your release. They are things you want to accomplish with this release of the product. They are helpful for deciding what to include in your release plan. Release objectives can be found in the same places as business goals and product vision and roadmap.

Part 4: Create a Release Timeline #

The next step in creating an effective release plan is to decide when you want to deliver this product. You want to make sure you have a good understanding of your team’s capacity and what the dependencies are for your product. Knowing when your product must be delivered and what can be built when will help you decide what goes into your release plan. Timelines can be found in the same places as product vision and roadmap, business goals, release objectives, and release dependencies.

Part 5: Build the Product Backlog and Sizing #

The product backlog is a place where you put all of the work that needs to be done for your product. It’s very important to understand what can be built and in what order, so that you can create an effective release plan. The product backlog is also helpful for the product owner when they are prioritising work.

Part 6: Identify Release Dependencies #

The next step in creating an effective release plan is to identify release dependencies. This is to understand what needs to happen before you can release this product. For example, maybe you need the website to be redesigned first before you can build the software that goes inside the product. Or maybe marketing needs time to create content before you can start building your product. Understanding release dependencies will help you decide what can go into your release plan. Release dependencies can be found in the same places as product vision and roadmap, business goals, product backlog and sizing, release objectives.

Part 7: Assess the Risk of the Release Plan #

The next step in creating an effective release plan is to assess the risk of the release plan. What could go wrong with this release plan? What problems might you face? Understanding the risk of your release plan will help you decide what goes into your release plan and what doesn’t. It will also help you put together a mitigation plan should something go wrong. Risks can be found in the same places as product vision and roadmap, business goals, product backlog and sizing, release objectives, release dependencies.

Part 8: Recommend Actions and Follow-up #

The last step in creating an effective release plan is to recommend actions and follow-up. You want to make sure that everyone on the team and in the organisation knows what they need to do next to get ready for the release. You also want to make sure that everyone has the information they need to make decisions. After all of this work, you should have an effective release plan that informs your team, stakeholders, and organisation about what you need to do to get ready for your next release. It will help you make confident decisions about what to build and when to ship it. It will let you know what dependencies need to happen before the release and how the release timeline impacts everyone’s work. Release plans don’t have to be scary. With the right approach, you can make release planning a breeze.

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