Planning in Agile 

Allows for flexibility and adaptation in product plan. 

It involves breaking down the product into smaller and more manageable pieces that can be delivered in short cycles. For planning well, you need to have a clear plan and a tool to help you track and manage your progress. One such tool is gantt charts, which are visual representations of your product timeline, tasks, dependencies, and milestones. 

You can use Gantt charts to see what your team is working on, how much time and effort they are spending, and how close they are to completing their goals, also to communicate and collaborate with your team and stakeholders and adjust your plan as needed. But before you start using Gantt charts, check a few steps that are part of the release planning process. Release planning is the process of deciding what features or enhancements you want to deliver in each cycle of your product, and when you expect to deliver them. 

Release planning helps you to align your product with your vision and strategy, and to set realistic and achievable expectations. 

To do release planning effectively, you need to consider some factors such as:

• The availability of the product owner. The product owner is the person who represents the customer’s needs and wants. They are responsible for creating and prioritizing the backlog, which is the list of features or requirements that the product needs to fulfill. The product owner should be available to provide feedback and guidance to the team throughout the product. Learn more about the product owner.

• The prioritization of the backlog by the product owner. The backlog should be organized by the product owner according to the value and urgency of each feature or requirement. The most important and valuable items should be at the top of the backlog, and the least important and valuable items should be at the bottom. The prioritization of the backlog helps the team to focus on what matters most for the customer and the business.

• The identification of team members and stakeholders. Team members are the people who work on the product, such as developers, designers, testers, etc. Stakeholders are the people who have an interest or influence in the product, such as customers, managers, sponsors, etc. You need to identify who are your team members and stakeholders, what are their roles and responsibilities, and how they will communicate and collaborate with each other.

• The availability and location of team members. Team members should be available to work on the product during the planned cycles. They should also be located in a similar time zone or have some overlap in their working hours. This will make it easier for them to coordinate and communicate with each other. If team members are not available or are located in different time zones, you may need to adjust your plan accordingly.

How it Works:

• Review and learn from the past. Before starting a new cycle of agile planning, it is important to reflect on what happened in the previous cycle. The team should have a meeting where they share their feedback, insights, and lessons learned from working on the previous set of features. They should celebrate their achievements and identify any areas for improvement to apply their learning to the next cycle and make it even smoother and more effective.

• Update and prioritize the plan. The next step is to have a planning meeting where the team reviews the current state of the product and the market. They should check if there are any new or changed requirements, expectations, or opportunities that affect their plan and prioritize the features that they want to work on next, based on their value and urgency. The plan should be clear and realistic and aligned with the product vision and strategy.

• Clarify and refine the user stories. A user story is a short description of what a user wants to do or achieve with the product. The team should evaluate each user story that they want to work on in the next cycle and make sure that it is well-defined and testable and any details or specifications that are needed to understand and implement the user story. The user stories should be written from the user’s perspective and focus on the benefits and outcomes that they provide.

• Break down and assign the tasks. Each user story should then be broken down into smaller and more manageable tasks that can be completed by one or more team members. The tasks should describe what needs to be done to deliver the user story, such as designing, coding, testing, or documenting. The team should assign each task to a team member who has the skills and availability to work on it. The team should also estimate how long each task will take and how much effort it will require.

• Visualize and track the progress. To keep track of who is doing what and how far they are from completing their tasks, the team should use a visual tool that shows the status of each task and user story. For example, they can use a board with columns for “To do”, “In progress”, “Done”, and “Verified”. They can also use cards or sticky notes to represent each task and move them across the columns as they work on them. This will help them to see the big picture and spot any issues or bottlenecks.