When is my product done?

The time when the product will be released can be determined in several ways. For instance:

• • by picking a dead-line

  • by defining a set of features that must be in

Let's take a look at a more classical situation. For this situation it holds that:

• • the amount of work over time is known

  • the velocity of the team is constant over time.

This situation is depicted in the figure below.

The ending time for this project can be estimated by determining the time when the two lines cross each other.

This is however the dream of many product team. The product definition is known, and the team is totally predictable!

Many development teams have the following challenges in their real-life projects:

• • the user-story velocity is not so predictable

  • the backlog changes over time