Agile Release Planning: Building on SAFe® and OST

Bob Cameron

Cameron Technology Solutions

www.cameronts.com

Bob.Cameron@CameronTS.com

SAFe is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.

Planning Layers

Vision

Roadmap

Release

Sprint

Daily

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Scrum Release Planning

• Ordered Product Backlog

• Velocity

• Sprint Goal

• Projections Mentioned in the Scrum Guide– Burn Down– Burn Up– Cumulative Flow

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Sprint 1

Sprint 3

Sprint 2

Sprint 4

Story Mapping

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Goal Goal Goal

Time

Feature Feature FeatureFeature Feature

Story

Story

Story Story

Story

Story

Story

Story

Story

Story

StoryStory

StoryStory

Necessity

2 wks

4 wks

8 wks

Story

Many Features – Many Teams

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Feature

Feature

Feature

Feature

Feature

Feature

Feature

ProgramBacklog

Story

StoryStory

Story

TeamBacklog

Story

StoryStory

Story

TeamBacklog

Story

StoryStory

Story

TeamBacklog

Program Backlog

Refinement

Release Planning

Scrum of Scrums

System Testing

System Demos

Inspect and Adapt

Release Decisions

SAFe® Program Increment Planning

Program Increment

Program Level Concepts• Agile Release Train (ART)• Team Dependencies• Architectural Runway• WSJF• New Roles and Teams

Program Backlog Program PI

Objectives

Roadmap

Vision

SAFe is a registered mark of Scaled Agile, Inc.

Weighted Shortest Job First

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𝑊𝑆𝐽𝐹 =𝐵𝑢𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑉𝑎𝑙𝑢𝑒 + 𝑇𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝐶𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑡𝑦 + 𝑅𝑖𝑠𝑘 𝑅𝑒𝑑𝑢𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛

𝐽𝑜𝑏 𝑆𝑖𝑧𝑒

Feature Bus Value

Time Critical

Risk Reduction

Job Size

WSJF

Feature 1 8 3 1 1 12

Feature 2 3 1 8 3 4

Feature 3 1 3 2 2 3

Program Increment Planning Event

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Business Context

Product Solution Vision

Architecture Vision & Dev Practices

Team Breakouts

Planning Retrospective and Moving Forward

Planning Context

End of Day Reviews

Final Plan Review

Risks / PI Confidence Vote

Can We Improve SAFe® PI Planning?

• Product Owners do not need to know the architecture details

• Predetermined agendas may miss important topics that attendees know about

• With team to team meetings, not everyone hears the conversations they need

• Conversation details are forgotten

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Open Space Technology (OST)

– Some of the most valuable conversations are in the hallway between sessions

• Need everyone together

• Participants generate the agenda

• Five Principles and One Law

• Proceedings / Breaking News

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Participants Generate the Agenda

Time Area 1 Area 2 Area 3 Area 4

Time 1

Time 2

Time 3

Time 4

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Five Principles

Whoever comes are the right

people

Whenever it starts is the right time

Whatever happens is the only thing that could have

When its over its over

Wherever it happens is the

right place

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Proceedings / Breaking News

Sample Outline

• Topic

• Facilitator

• Participants

• Discussion Notes

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• Topic Facilitator Takes Notes

• Proceedings are Posted in a Breaking News Area

• Proceedings are posted after the meeting for further reference

Combining Agile Release Planning Methods

Agile Release Planning

Backlogs

Story Mapping

SAFe

OST

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Program Planning Event

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Business Context

Product Solution Vision

Planning Context / OST Agenda

End of Day Reviews

Publish Proceedings

Open Space Breakouts

Final Plan Adjustments and ReviewRisks / PI Confidence Vote

Planning Retrospective and Moving Forward

Next Steps

Combining release planning methods from

the first release plan

Better define when and when not to combine

Story Mapping, SAFe and OST

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Web Resources

• http://www.CameronTS.com/

• http://jpattonassociates.com/

• http://www.scaledagileframework.com/

• http://openspaceworld.org/wp2/

• http://openspaceagility.com/

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Contact Information

Bob Cameron

Cameron Technology Solutions

www.cameronts.com

Bob.Cameron@CameronTS.com