Dimensional planning (XPDays 2007)

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Dimensional Planning

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Overview• Introduction• Dimensional Planning• Related techniques• Dimensional Planning Revisited

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Introduction• Not like anything you’ve seen before!

– Forget about other planning techniques(critical path, buffering, contingency, …)

• Specialized for Software development– Especially OO development– No physical boundaries– No need to respect the natural order!

No adoption of existing planning techniques!

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Dimensional Planning• Intent• Motivation• Applicability• Structure• Consequences• Implementation

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Intent• Make planning

– more Predictable– more Adaptable

• The goal is to always have – a shippable product on time– that better fits the customer’s requirements

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Motivation• Predictability vs Adaptability• Anticipation• Agile vs Rigid Anticipation• Agile Planning too rigid

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Predictability vs Adaptability• Are they really inversely proportional?

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Anticipation

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Agile vs Rigid Predictability• What kind of goals can we set without

sacrificing Agility?• Is it possible that setting fixed goals can

even improve Agility?• Are there different goals to choose from?• Do we need different techniques or is there

a universal technique for different situations?

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Agile Planning too Rigid• At the release level (and above)• At the iteration level

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Release planning too Rigid• There are no alternatives

– Just one backlog (one big pile of features)– No structure in the backlog (just a sequence)– No fallback

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Iteration planning too Rigid

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Applicability• Dimensionality is applicable to

– Feature Group level– Feature level

• Dimensional planning is applicable to– Release planning (and beyond)– Iteration planning

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Structure• Add new dimensions

– Dirt road– Cobblestone road– Asphalted road

• to different levels– Feature group (alternate future)– Feature (alternate depth)

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Dirt road

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Cobblestone road

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Asphalt road

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Alternate Futures• different set of features per alternate future

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Alternate depths• Every feature has different depths

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Combined view

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Consequences• Effects of dimensional planning on

– Release planning– Iteration planning

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Release Planning

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Iteration Planning• Different planning strategies

– Dimensions in backlog– No dimensions in backlog

• Same feature can show up in different iterations– But with a different dimension

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With Dimensions

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No Dimensions

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Implementation• Mr. Bike wants to get on the internet …

• 2 Feature Groups– Enable E-Commerce– Support Customers online

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Enable E-Commerce

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Shopping Cart

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Related techniques• Partial solutions• Buffering

– Scope buffer (DSDM 70% rule)– Time buffer

• Splitting user stories of mixed priority– These are new user stories

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Dimensional Planning Revisited• Explicit vs Implicit dimensional planning• Better fit for customer• Theory of Constraints

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Explicit vs Implicit Dimension• Implicit dimensions

– Common language– Less overhead for planning– Especially useful in iteration planning

• Team knows what a dirt/cobble/asphalted road for a feature looks like

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