In this video, we will discuss what is a Release.
What is the difference between a Release and a Project?
When does it make sense to create a Release Plan?
What are the benefits of a Release Planning exercise, and what are the
prerequisites for creating a Release Plan?
Hey Friends!
Welcome back to the channel.
If you're new here, my name is Vibhor.
I am an Executive Agile and Leadership Coach based in Toronto, Canada.
And this is the fourth video in the ongoing series where I'm trying to
simplify the process of planning an Agile Product, starting with the Product
Vision, followed by Product Roadmap, Release Plans, and finally learning
how to create Product Backlogs full of effective bite-size User Stories.
So, if you are a Scrum Master or an Agile Coach consider subscribing
to learn some actionable and super effective ways to be Agile.
There are timestamps available, so feel free to skip around
the video if you feel like it.
For now, let's get started.
So what is a Release?
A couple of years back Senior VP of Product Marketing in one of
the largest banks in the World asked me this very question.
And although I knew the answer, I struggled to explain it in a language
readable by an Executive's mind.
That is without any technical jargon.
I ended up explaining all the nitty-gritty details about a product release and the
ins and outs of the release planning.
Which I'm pretty sure didn't resonate very well with the Executive.
This happened because I never thought that something, as basic as the
release would need an explanation.
That day, I learned a lesson.
The higher up you are on the corporate ladder, the simpler
you are required to think.
As Albert Einstein famously said, "If you can't explain it to a six year
old, you don't understand it yourself."
Coming back to the question.
A release is nothing but, " A moment in time when we go to market."
Once again, it's a MOMENT in time when WE GO TO MARKET.
We can elaborate it by saying, "Because we think what we are
releasing will attract sales."
This brings us to the next question.
What's the difference between a project and a release?
And the simple answer is it depends on how you look at it.
A project is something that has a set beginning and a defined end.
It is an endeavor that ends at a certain point in time.
We use projects to deliver certain ideas, some value or some value
proposition into the marketplace.
If you have worked in a project delivery environment for some time, you must
be familiar with some Initiatives or Programs running within your organization.
Such programs or initiatives are usually a collection of multiple projects.
Similarly, a Project comprises multiple Releases, or maybe even a
single Release, depending upon how the business prioritizes "Going To Market."
Now, a project is usually is delivered by one or multiple teams.
In Agile, we have this concept of dedicated teams.
There are many ways to look at dedicated teams, depending upon whether you
are in a product based environment, or a Projectized environment.
Typically in a Projectized environment, the people in a dedicated team
stick together and plan multiple projects, whether or not that project
delivers value to the same product or some other kind of value in a
different part of the organization.
Now, If you are in a startup environment or a more mature Agile organization,
you might be thinking, "What a complicated way of doing things."
And you're right.
But, Hey!
Who said going Agile is easy for a Legacy organization.
The first step towards accomplishing something is to GET STARTED.
And this is what getting started looks like in a large, behemoth organization
with tons of legacy, to deal with.
This brings us to the next question.
When does it make sense to create a release plan?
If you are in an organization that is planning to release every single Sprint,
backed by a solid infrastructure with DevOps and Continuous Delivery in place,
then the kind of release planning that we're talking about won't make much sense.
Release planning makes sense in organizations where business
requirements require multiple sprints or multiple iterations of value
delivery to justify releasing to market.
Finance and Food are examples of such industries.
In a regulated environment, such as these are the costs of delivering a
specific functionality is relatively high.
Thanks to their highly mature legacy systems.
These companies therefore prefer to release on a quarterly, six
months or even yearly basis.
Now, with that out of the way, let's talk about the benefits of release planning.
As the name suggests the most crucial benefit of release planning
is to define what is releasable.
Release planning, exercise serves as an opportunity to have conversations about
what makes a minimum viable product, or if you are not in a product environment,
what are the minimum releasable features for the upcoming release.
During the release planning business, and it teams sit together to discuss
the minimum that needs to be built, to bring the maximum value to the end user.
Now, the question that might come to your mind is.
Why minimum.
And the simple answer is to have shorter releases, to increase the speed to market,
and to gain the first mover advantage.
The second benefit of the release planning is that it provides opportunity
for the development team to set expectations with the business,
in terms of what is likely to be delivered and how long it might take.
Later in this video series, I will define a step by step process that you
could use to set realistic and somewhat accurate expectations with the business.
So if you haven't already please consider subscribing and press
the bell icon, to get notified.
The third benefit of the release spanning is that it helps in revealing
hidden complexities associated with the project, prompting the development
team to ask business additional clarifying questions from the get-go.
This in turn may result in uncovering the dependencies, which is the fourth
and the final benefit of conducting a release planning exercise.
Dependency mapping is a crucial step that helps in organizing the user stories
prior to sprint planning, meeting.
Okay, with benefits out of the way, let's take a look at the prerequisites
for creating a release plan.
And at the highest level, there are three prerequisites.
First is the product backlog, which is a list of features,
functionalities, or outcomes selected by the business stakeholders
to be worked upon by the team.
The second prerequisite is Priority.
The order in which the items in the product backlog will be delivered.
Without a prioritized backlog, the team has no way to figure out
what needs to be delivered next.
The third prerequisite is the input from the development team.
Input about the available infrastructure and technical challenges along with
information about the team's availability, team's capacity, and the current
historical or predicted velocity to deliver the items in the backlog.
And lastly, from the business side, we need Product Vision and
Product Roadmap, showcasing the strategy required to achieve the
underlying business objectives.
I've already covered the videos and product vision and roadmap, link is
in this corner or in the description if you want to check them out.
In the following video, we will learn how to create a product backlog and how to
collaboratively prioritize the backlog to provide the highest value to the business.
So there you have it.
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and don't forget to provide your valuable feedback in the comments.
I'll see you in the next video.