Chapter 2: Release Planning – Tuning Product Development
Congratulations! Last weekend, you and your significant other decided to get married and agreed upon a date two years from now, which gives you plenty of time to plan (and save some money!). What level of planning would you engage in today? Conceptual, like maybe a Star Wars theme or which venue should we visit, or detailed, like the bride should wear pink toenail polish and her hair in braids. Consider your initial planning approach, followed by more detailed levels of planning that you'd engage in as the wedding approaches. What information emerges through time? How does this affect your plan? Is the word "plan" more usefully thought of as a noun or a verb? Why?
Think back to a recent surprise on a project that you were involved with. Was it preventable? Would thinking longer and harder about the problem have unearthed the issue sooner? Are all surprises avoidable? How does Agile say that teams should deal with surprises, via avoidance or embracement?
Your senior architect is not very fond of moving to an Agile way of working. He balks and verbally resists Scrum in every meeting. He is concerned that attention to good architecture will be traded in for cowboy coding and hacks. How do you involve him in the team's discussions, yet not let his all-or-nothing approach hinder progress?
How do story points and hours differ? How would you explain using both to a reluctant team? (This will happen, so please don't skip this question!)
General tip: For all meetings, create scripts and agendas that keep things moving, ideally with as much team involvement as possible. Prior to the meeting, construct a storyboard of the meeting and identify what the actors will do in each scene, along with the necessary inputs and expected outcomes of each action. These scenes in your meeting storyboard provide an excellent start to your agenda and help you visualize your meeting as a movie ahead of time; this is a great use of your imagination to help you create a tangible, workable agenda!
