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Release Planning Sessions are conducted to develop a Release Plan. The plan defines when various sets of usable functionality or products will be delivered to the customer. In Scrum, the major objective of a Release Planning Meeting is to enable the Scrum Team to have an overview of the releases and delivery schedule for the product they are developing so that they can align with the expectations of the Product Owner and relevant business stakeholders (primarily the project sponsor).

Many organizations have a strategy regarding release of products. Some organizations prefer continuous deployment, where there is a release after creation of specified usable functionality. Other organizations prefer phased deployment, where releases are made at predefined intervals. Depending on the organization’s strategy, Release Planning Sessions in projects may be driven by functionality, in which the objective is to deliver a release once a predetermined set of functionality has been developed; or the planning may be driven by date, in which the release happens on a predefined date.

Since Scrum framework promotes information based, iterative decision making over the detailed upfront planning practiced in traditional waterfall style project management, Release Planning Sessions need not produce a detailed Release Plan for the entire project. The Release Plan can be updated continually as relevant information is available.

Dwight D Eisenhower said, “I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.” The Agile Manifesto tends to agree with Eisenhower and values “Responding to change over following a plan.”

Different kinds of plans play important roles at different levels. Iterations are short periods, lasting for 1 to 6 weeks, during which incremental product development takes place. Before iterations begin, there has to be a release plan. A release can come at the end of every iteration or at the end of a number of iterations.

Release planning depends on the project’s scope, schedule, and user stories. As plans go, it takes time and effort to come up with a rock-solid one! Even then, it just might not work! Do not expect release planning to be perfect. It is difficult to predict with accuracy, problems that will crop up within software development projects.

Agile recognizes the uncertain nature of software and product development and adjusts accordingly, instead of trying to manipulate scope in order to adjust time and cost. Date and Cost are the main constraints for most organizations, and these are the only constraints that can be controlled. It is better to control them, rather than compromise on the scope!

A key term that seems to pop up here is ‘velocity’, which essentially means the amount of work that can be done by a team in an iteration. If we are clear about the velocity, it becomes easy to manage the scope and produce a release plan. We can take out our product backlog, consider our velocity, and get an idea of the number of iterations needed to get the work done. When we combine these with the information on priority, vision, and critical path, we are well on our way toward making a good plan.

Now all that we need is to schedule the work from the backlog into the iterations till the fixed date. If the number of iterations exceeds the fixed date, the scope will have to be adjusted. User Stories may have to be deferred into different releases. If you are not going to compromise on any of the stories, then the schedule-based approach is not for you. When scope takes priority, velocity determines the iterations needed to finish the work. A release date can be identified.

A Release plan drives the dates and sets expectations. It will change according to the changes reflected in the project; there is a need to constantly modify and update it. This is the only way to ensure that plans are meaningful, accurate, valuable, and indispensable.

The answer to this question is No. Release planning is a very important part of the Scrum process. In this process, the Scrum Core Team reviews the User Stories in the Prioritized Product Backlog to develop a Release Planning Schedule, which is essentially a phased deployment schedule that can be shared with the project stakeholders. Length of Sprint is also determined in this process.

Release Planning Sessions

Release Planning Sessions are conducted to develop a Release Plan. The plan defines when various sets of usable functionality or products will be delivered to the customer. In Scrum, the major objective of a Release Planning Meeting is to enable the Scrum Team to have an overview of the releases and delivery schedule for the product they are developing – so that they can align with the expectations of the Product Owner and relevant stakeholders (primarily the project sponsor).

Release Planning Schedule

A Release Planning Schedule is one of the key outputs of the Conduct Release Planning process. A Release Planning Schedule states which deliverables are to be released to the customers, along with planned intervals, and dates for releases. There may not be a release scheduled at the end of every Sprint iteration. At times, a release may be planned after a group of Sprint iterations are completed. Depending on the organization’s strategy, Release Planning sessions in projects may be driven by functionality, in which the objective is to deliver, once a predetermined set of functionality has been developed, or the planning may be driven by date, in which the release happens on a predefined date. The deliverable should be released when it offers sufficient business value to the customer.