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Agile Scheduling2013 – Jun

By: Mohamed Saad

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Agenda

Release Planning Essentials Iteration Planning Selection an Iteration Length

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Release Planning Essentials

The Release Plan

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Release Planning Essentials

The Release Plan Determine The Condition of

Satisfaction› Feature-driven project: Must include some

features in release› Date-driven project: Must be released by

date Estimate the User Stories

› Discussed in Estimating Size (Story Points or Ideal Days)

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Release Planning Essentials

Select an Iteration Length Estimate Velocity Prioritizing User Stories

› Discussed in Planning for value considering Financial, Cost, Knowledge and Risk

Select Stories and Release Date› Feature-driven VS Date-driven› Determine the release planning task vs.

determining each iteration stories

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Release Planning Essentials

Updating the Release Plan› Is done at end of each Iteration

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Iteration Planning

Iteration Planning› Tasks are not allocated During Iteration

Planning› How Iteration Planning Differs from Release

Planning

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Iteration Planning

Velocity-Driven Iteration Planning› Adjust Priorities› Determine target Velocity› Identify Iteration Goal› Select User Stories

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Iteration Planning

Velocity-Driven Iteration Planning (Cont.)› Split User Stories into Tasks

Include only work that values to this project: no email responding or discussions should be included

Include Unit Testing: as separate task or include it in task estimate

Include Meetings in tasks Include bugs fixing in tasks estimate: if it’s not detected

within the iteration should be included in next iterations Handling Dependences: try to use natural order if

possible Handle work that is difficult to split: split in to two tasks

Determine effect and estimate. Make do the work

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Iteration Planning

Velocity-Driven Iteration Planning (Cont.)› Estimate Tasks

Estimates Is in ideal hours Involve some design details Chose right size: try to split tasks to fit in to one

day

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Iteration Planning

Commitment-Driven Iteration Planning

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Iteration Planning

Commitment-Driven Iteration Planning (Cont.)› Ask for a Team Commitment

Summing the Estimates Include Maintenance work from previous

projects time

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Selecting an Iteration Length

Range of Iteration Length› 2-weeks to 4-weeks (1-Month)

Factors in Selecting an Iteration Length› The Overall length of the Release: should

have at least 4-5 Iterations› The Amount of Uncertainty: short iterations

decreases uncertainty› The Ease of Getting Feedback: if it’s hard

to get feedback will use long iterations

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Selecting an Iteration Length

Factors in Selecting an Iteration Length (cont.)› How Long Priorities Can Remain Unchanged: it

took around 1.5 iteration to see new changes› Willingness to Go without Outside Feedback› The Overhead of Iteration: time wasted by

meeting for (review iteration and start new iteration)

› How Soon a feeling of Urgency is Established: as long as the end date of an iteration is far we don’t feel pressure

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References

Agile Estimating and Planning by Mike Cohn.