Plan Iteration

From WoodRanch Agile Projects

During release planning the delivery of features is determined, taking dependencies between the features and between teams into consideration. The estimates are rough at this point due to the lack of detail and uncertainty. For iterations within the release, a planning session takes place. Before or during the session, detail is added to the features (or stories) through decomposing into tasks. Adding detail increases accuracy of the estimates. The actual capacity of the individual teams is known with more certainty. The combination of these increased accuracies makes certain that the team would be able to commit to actually delivering a number of features during the iteration.

The structure of the iteration planning session resembles the release planning session. Although the teams work individually to produce their iteration plan, synchronization between teams will provide an effective mechanism to detect and resolve dependencies. The agenda for the planning meeting bears great similarities with the one from the release planning meeting, with the prime distinction of the planning horizon: only a single iteration is observed in all activities. The core of the activities is carried out on a team-by-team basis:

• The individual teams determine their actual capacity, or the amount of work it can get done within the iteration.
• The individual teams decompose as many features as seem to fit in the next iteration into tasks – this can be done in preparation.
• Every task is estimated, with a typical task size of a half a day to two days.
• The “Completed feature” definition is defined - a feature is not Completed until it has been fully tested and accepted by the product owner.

The results of the individual teams are inspected in a joint session to determine dependencies (or disappearance of them) that were not seen during the release planning session.

You can perform iteration planning easily in WRAP using Agile Process map to access various pages quickly for iteration tracking. Agile Process graphical map that is accessible from Start Here link on Quick Link menu on left. This map allows to view steps performed in iteration planning and provides access to a particular page by clicking the icon.

Following activities are performed in WRAP to support iteration planning-

• Add an iteration for a product or project.
• Add team members to Iteration
• Schedule high priority stories and defects from product backlog to the iteration.
• Break up stories scheduled in iteration in tasks and assign tasks to team members.
• Define additional tasks (tasks not associated with stories) for iteration.
• View iteration in detail by stories, tasks, defects and participants.