Release Planning

The velocity of a scrum team may need to be adjusted as sprints are delivered. This could impact the release date. The foundational understanding is that all features identified are important to the release, so the delivery of the features takes precedence over the final calendar date. Communications on changes to the release date will need to be reviewed with the stakeholders frequently to manage expectations.

Date Driven Release Planning

There are instances, where dates provide the driver for release planning. Events, seasonal campaigns and other date driven activities may drive the delivery of features. In this instance the goal is to meet a date with the maximum number of minimally viable features delivered. The date is the most important milestone and as such features may be removed or delayed until a later release.

The steps for delivering are similar with a few key exceptions:

1) The product owner will still produce a prioritized backlog. Dependencies, risks and technical debt issues should be considered.
2) Create delivery estimates for each of the user stories.
3) Using prior or estimated scrum team velocity metrics, determine the number of user stories that can be included in each sprint.
4) Estimate the number of sprints that can be included within the release and
5) Plan the sprints based on user stories that can be included to meet the date.

Recommended Further Reading

The following materials may assist you in order to get the most out of this course: