Stage 3 of the Roadmap to Value is creating the release plan. A release is a set of minimally marketable features – the smallest group of product features that you can effectively deploy and promote in the marketplace. A release plan contains a set of features and a release date.
To create a release plan, use the following steps as a guide:
- Establish a release goal
- Review the product backlog to determine the highest priority user stories that support your release goal
- Determine a date for the release:
Sometimes teams add a release sprint to ensure a smooth release. Should you decide to do so, be sure to incorporate that into your release date - Refine the user stories, if you haven’t done so yet
- Get the development team’s buy-in and commitment for the first release
However, please note that not all agile teams use release plans. Many agile teams release features at the end of every sprint or continuously as soon as they are done.
