Steps: Create a Version Plan

Sets

  1. Prepare for Version Release Planning
  2. Run the Version Release Planning Meeting

Prepare for Version Release Planning

Agile Release Manager:

  1. Create a report or list in the tracker that filters epics by the field you use to designate the “minimally releasable product”—everything that absolutely must be in the next major version of the project—showing both:
    • MRP
    • Extra
  2. Negotiate a deadline by which the Release Planners will draft all of the epics desired for the version.
  3. Remind them:
    • How to label the epic as part of the MRP or an “Extra.”
    • That only the “story statement” is required for this purpose, and only MRP epics.
  4. After the deadline, add any business requirement epics you think are missing.
  5. Schedule a meeting of the Release Planners and the Team Guides to revise the list, as soon as most are available after the deadline.
  6. If the team or set of teams has been through three Planning Releases, determine or update the “Epic Velocity”—the number of epics the program reliably delivers in a release.

Details: “Create a Version Backlog.”

Run the Version Release Planning Meeting

Agile Release Manager, during the meeting:

  1. Show the Product Backlog filtered by “MRP.”
  2. If you have an epic velocity:
    1. Count the number of “MRP” epics.
    2. Divide the total by the epic velocity and round up to find the number of Planning Releases required to complete that amount of work.
  3. Otherwise, help attendees:
    1. Estimate the number of calendar months required to deliver that total number of epics, assuming “normal” problems and that the teams remain 100% on the current project.
    2. Divide the result by the number of months in your release cycle, and round up.
      Example: For quarterly Planning Releases:
      11 (months) ÷ 2 (months per release) = 5.5 (releases, rounded up to 6).

Details: “Estimate the Releases.”

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