Copyright 2006 - David Churchville - XP and Agile Planning David Churchville ExtremePlanner Software XP Fishbowl.

Copyright 2006 - David Churchville - www.extremeplanner.com

XP and Agile XP and Agile PlanningPlanning

XP and Agile XP and Agile PlanningPlanning

David ChurchvilleDavid ChurchvilleExtremePlanner SoftwareExtremePlanner Softwarewww.extremeplanner.comwww.extremeplanner.com

XP FishbowlXP Fishbowl San Diego Code CampSan Diego Code Camp


Topics• Why Plan?• Release planning• Iteration planning• Daily planning• Example• Questions?


Why do we plan?• To answer questions about a

project– What will this system need to do?– What are the expected benefits?– When will it be available?– What will it take to build it?

• But mainly: Is it worth doing?


Why does planning fail?• Pitfalls of Traditional Plans

– Activity-based instead of feature-based• “resource” allocation and 100% utilization

– Work is not prioritized by value– Uncertainty in estimates is ignored– Estimates are treated as commitments


Why Agile Planning?• The further we are from delivery, the

less accurate the plan• To reduce risk, we need to learn more

by delivering working software quickly• Feedback (product and technical) is

used to improve the accuracy of the plan


Agile Planning Levels

Daily Planning(stand-up meetings)


Agile Planning Levels• Release Planning

– Primary goals: overall vision, external communication

– Feature level planning– Big picture thinking– Driven by the customer/product

owner


Agile Planning Levels• Iteration Planning

– Primary goals: internal communication

– Task level planning– Development team drives this from

priority and risk viewpoint


Agile Planning Levels• Daily Planning (standup meeting)

– Primary goals: internal communication

– Individual planning and coordination– Avoids duplicated effort– Difficult to “go dark”


Release Planning Steps• Brainstorm a set of user stories• Estimate relative size of stories• Choose release criteria (date or

feature set)• Prioritize stories for release• Choose a set of features


Release Planning Steps• Brainstorm a set of user stories

– Roles and goals– As a __ I can __ so that __– Involve the entire product team– Review as a team to normalize– OK if we don’t capture everything


Release Planning Steps• Estimate size of stories

– Use points or ideal time– Suggest S,M,L or 1,2,4,8,16– Educated guess or “planning poker”– Goal is to help customer prioritize


Release Planning Steps• Choose Release Criteria

– Fixed Deadline (we need it by Q2!)– Fixed Scope (when can we have it??)

• Issues– Can’t pick both scope and deadline!– Either scope or duration is fuzzy


Release Planning Steps• Prioritize Stories for Release

– Force rank stories (1..2..3…N) or…– “Buy” stories

• Let each person pick top N• Or give each person limited points to

spend• Allow small budget for infrastructure


Release Planning Steps• Choose stories for release

– For date-driven releases, calculate capacity• FTEs * Workdays * EffectiveHrsPerDay• 4 FTE * 30 days * 5 hours per day = 120 ideal hours

– Select stories based on what fits (convert size to duration)

– Note which stories are “must have”, “should have”, and “nice to have” in case of scope cuts


Iteration Planning Steps

• Re-prioritize work (after first)• Select stories for the iteration

– Determine iteration capacity– Priority-based or risk-based?


Iteration Planning Steps

• Break stories into tasks– Estimate task durations (not size)– Split or merge stories as needed– Reality check for commitments

• No need to assign tasks.


Daily Planning Steps• Standup meeting

– What did I accomplish yesterday?– What do I plan to accomplish today?– What are the obstacles blocking me?

• Keep it short!


Daily Planning Steps• Add any new tasks• Sign up for tasks• Update estimates and status• Update “information radiators”


Resources - Books• Agile Estimating and Planning

(Cohn)• Planning Extreme Programming

(Beck, Fowler)• Agile Project Management with

Scrum (Schwaber)


Resources - Tools• For small, co-located teams

– Index cards, whiteboards– Excel spreadsheets

• For distributed teams/larger teams– ExtremePlanner

(extremeplanner.com)– Version One (versionone.com)– XPlanner (xplanner.org)


Example• Sudoku• Discuss and prioritize stories for

the day


Thank You• For a copy of this presentation

– Email: [email protected]

Copyright 2006 - David Churchville - XP and Agile Planning David Churchville ExtremePlanner Software XP Fishbowl.

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