Conduct Release Planning
Now that the epics have been defined and prioritized, the Release Plan schedule can be drawn up. The Scrum Master convenes the Release Planning Meeting and ensures that the (draft) Schedule is produced. They also assist in determining the length in a number of days of a sprint for this project. At the start of the project, the Release Plan will be vague, with a low confidence level, because the requirements are not clearly understood by the team or the stakeholders themselves at this stage. With each iteration, the Plan gets updated and more precise. Where the project is large, there will need to be coordination of releases and inter-team communication to keep product progress synchronized.
The History of Agile For Scrum Masters
Prior to the 1990’s software development was very slow, often taking years to complete development and release the product to market. The industry was following a very formal approach for products and software development, with a lot of documentation, procedures, and approvals. There was no space for changes throughout the way, there was no time for it, which means no time to adapt when needed. Although the development was very slow, the business needs were not. The business was changing really fast but the development couldn’t follow its velocity, which resulted in many projects being canceled, products coming to market with outdated technology. Within this scenario, some people started thinking in a different way of developing products to be faster and in accordance with the business needs: that’s when Agile was conceived.
Why Agile?
While Agile is sometimes thought of as a software development project management approach, it isn’t just for these types of technology-centric companies. Instead, most business organizations can benefit from using Agile as well. Scrum Masters working in non-technology sectors of business can still benefit from getting companies to switch to Agile.
Agile is great for companies that want to respond quickly and efficiently to opportunities, threats, and events that affect their company. With the landscape of business ever-changing, remaining flexible and responding efficiently to events can keep a company competitive. Since teams work collaboratively and make decisions quickly, utilizing an agile approach to business can be very effective in staying ahead of the competition.
Recommended Further Reading
The following materials may assist you in order to get the most out of this course:
Course Contents
Section 1: Agile Project Management
Section 2: Using the Agile Manifesto to Deliver Change
Section 3: The 12 Agile Principles
Section 4: The Agile Fundamentals
Section 5: The Declaration of Interdependence
Section 6: Agile Development Frameworks
Section 7: Introduction to Scrum
Section 8: Scrum Projects
Section 9: Scrum Project Roles
Section 10: Meet the Scrum Team
Section 11: Building the Scrum Team
Section 12: Scrum in Projects, Programs & Portfolios
Section 13: How to Manage an Agile Project
Section 14: Leadership Styles
Section 15: The Agile Project Life-cycle
Section 16: Business Justification with Agile
Section 17: Calculating the Benefits With Agile
Section 18: Quality in Agile
Section 19: Acceptance Criteria and the Prioritised Product Backlog
Section 20: Quality Management in Scrum
Section 21: Change in Scrum
Section 22: Integrating Change in Scrum
Section 23: Managing Change in Scrum
Section 24: Risk in Scrum
Section 25: Risk Assessment Techniques
Section 26: Initiating an Agile Project
Section 27: Forming the Scrum Team
Section 28: Epics and Personas
Section 29: Creating the Prioritised Product Backlog
Section 30: Conduct Release Planning
Section 31: The Project Business Case
Section 32: Planning in Scrum
Section 33: Scrum Boards
Section 34: Sprint Planning
Section 35: User Stories
Section 36: User Stories and Tasks
Section 37: The Sprint Backlog
Section 38: Implementation of Scrum
Section 39: The Daily Scrum
Section 40: The Product Backlog
Section 41: Scrum Charts
Section 42: Review and Retrospective
Section 43: Scrum of Scrums
Section 44: Validating a Sprint
Section 45: Retrospective Sprint
Section 46: Releasing the Product
Section 47: Project Retrospective
Section 48: The Communication Plan
Section 49: Formal Business Sign-off
Section 50: Scaling Scrum
Section 51: Stakeholders
Section 52: Programs and Portfolios