Insider Tips for Advanced Release Planning

Release planning is a basic function of agile project management. With it, we can develop a high-level plan showing when features (or “user stories”) will be completed, show which features we can commit to at major milestones in the project, and plan for the interlocks with other inter-related projects. Most books on agile management teach the basics of release planning, yet many managers struggle with everyday planning issues that are often missed in the agile basic training.

This 90 presentation, taught by agile project management expert Kevin Aguanno (author of over a dozen published books and DVDs on agile topics), will complete your release planning training by showing you:

  • A brief overview of basic release planning (a refresher)
  • The importance of regular release plan maintenance
  • How to build a release plan with fixed delivery dates vs. fixed scope
  • How to account for statutory holidays, known vacations, or other resource constraints
  • How to account for periodic blackouts – periods when no changes are allowed to be made to demo/UAT/production systems during these periods
  • How to plan for resolving defects without affecting velocity metrics and project burndown forecasts

Designed for those with some existing knowledge of agile, this course takes participants to the next level in their understanding of how to build realistic release plans.

Testimonials

"Thanks for the presentation today. It was a pleasure listening to a 'real world' experienced agile practitioner. It was very gratifying to hear you touch on many of the challenges that one faces while dealing with 'planning'. I work in the Clinical informatics area and have been a practitioner of Agile methodology for about 5+ years although without any formal training (and that includes project management training). There is a lot of common sense and gut instincts involved. I find this a nice fit for many of our research projects where we are dealing with a lot of 'unknowns'. I would be very much interested in your future presentations / workshops geared towards in-depth exploration of specific areas (as you did today)."
- Sivaram Arabandi, MD, MS, Clinical Informatics Consultant,
Evolvers Group