Agile projects contain a relatively short project planning period at the project start. During project planning, the project team meets to set the tone of the project at the strategic level, which guides them to project completion. Unlike traditional project planning, agile project planning is completed in a shorter period of time, usually in no more than two short sessions.
The project planning activity is outlined inthe first two stages in the Agile Roadmap to Value: creating the Product Vision and the Product Roadmap. Attendees of this activity include the project team (the product owner, scrum master, development team members and key stakeholders).
In part one of project planning, the product owner identifies the product vision. The product vision is your project’s destination. It’s a definition of what your product is and how it will support your company or organization’s strategy. The product vision also includes who will use the product and why people will use the product. The result of this first part of project planning is the first Agile Roadmap to Value artifact, the product vision statement. This is an elevator pitch, or quick summary that articulates the goals for the product.
Developing the product vision includes:
- Developing the product objective
- Creating a draft vision statement
- Validating and revising the vision statement
- Finalizing the vision statement
In part two of project planning, the product owner creates a product roadmap. . The product roadmap is a high-level view of the product requirements, with a loose time frame for when you will develop those requirements. Identifying product requirements and then prioritizing and roughly estimating the effort for those requirements are a large part of creating your product roadmap.
Creating the product roadmap includes:
- Identifying product requirements
- Arranging product features
- Estimating and ordering the product’s features
- Determining high-level time frames
On longer projects, revisit the product vision statement at least once a year. You will update the product roadmap throughout the project as priorities change. For now, the contents of the first release should be clear. This enables you to prepare for release planning, which is the third stage in the Agile Roadmap to Value.
