Dash planning is a vital scrum ceremony wherein the scrum group decides what work it’s going to decide to within the upcoming dash. Whether or not your groups work in two- or four-week sprints, the dash planning ceremony ought to happen at the start of every dash.
On this information, we’ll outline dash planning at a excessive stage earlier than diving into the main points, together with who participates in dash planning, what happens throughout the ceremony, and finest practices for operating a dash planning assembly.
Scroll to the top to see a dash planning assembly agenda template you need to use as a cheat sheet when conducting your individual dash planning ceremony.
Desk of contents
What’s dash planning?
A dash planning assembly is a session wherein the product supervisor and improvement group plan the work the group will decide to for the upcoming 2–3 weeks.
Dash planning assembly are often full-day occasions for a month’s sprints however might be proportionately shorter for shorter sprints managed by a scrum grasp.
Who attends a dash planning assembly?
The dash planning ceremony is often led by the product supervisor, product proprietor, or scrum grasp. All members of the scrum group ought to be in attendance. This consists of engineers, QAs, and designers, every of whom is vital to the dash planning course of.
Along with main the assembly, the product supervisor helps present enterprise or consumer context and prioritizes tradeoffs.
Designers will help clear up any last-minute confusion about designs and acceptance standards.
Engineers outline implementation complexity and the way a lot work it might decide to. QA can also be vital on this regard. Simply because a narrative is dev-complete doesn’t imply it may be launched; there must be testing capability too.
What do you do throughout dash planning?
Throughout dash planning, the scrum group evaluations work from the earlier dash, determines its capability for the upcoming dash, and commits to the highest-priority work to fill that capability.
Start by reviewing the work accomplished within the earlier dash. Have been all of the dedicated tales accomplished? If not, establish the quantity of effort left on any tales or duties which might be rolling over. Taking these under consideration ensures you gained’t overcommit to new work by approaching it as you probably have full capability (since you don’t).
Some notes on dash rollover:
- Dash rollover is just not at all times a foul factor! Many issues can contribute to dash rollover, together with vital bugs and unknowns within the dedicated work (extra on these later)
- Dash rollover may even be a very good factor when the group completes the dedicated work sooner than anticipated and may start pulling from the prioritized backlog
- Regardless of the state of affairs, use dash rollover as a studying alternative for velocity changes and extra correct planning sooner or later
After you’ve assessed the work and energy rolling over, the group can focus on new tales to drag in. Once more, because the product supervisor, you need to outline precedence and supply context, however the remainder of the group ought to resolve how a lot of that it might full.
Tradeoff selections might should be made throughout these discussions. That is the place your product administration abilities are vital.
For instance, let’s say you’re hoping to slot in a three-point and five-point story, however there’s solely capability left for 5 factors. You’ll be able to resolve to drag within the five-pointer or go for the three-pointer with one other small story.
When confronted with a situation like this instance, you need to focus on the enterprise, consumer, and technical tradeoffs with the group. Don’t delay any future work that’s blocked by the story you’re deprioritizing.
Beneath is an in depth instance of a product backlog groomed and prioritized because of dash planning:
Do it’s good to set a dash aim?
Dash objectives originated within the early days of scrum as a strategy to measure success for every accomplished dash. Whereas some groups nonetheless maintain dash objectives in excessive regard, they’re not at all times vital. In some circumstances, they’re not even doable.
Should you’re constructing a brand new product that will take a number of sprints to be MVP-ready, it’s powerful to outline helpful dash objectives. It may be tempting to set a aim to ship all dedicated tales within the dash, however this places your give attention to output slightly than outcomes.
So long as you’re prioritizing an important work alongside the trail to launch and your complete group feels snug with every dash’s commitments, you may be higher off forgoing dash objectives altogether.
Finest practices for dash planning
Dash planning is extra than simply pulling tales into the to-do listing till the group says “cease.” Let’s evaluate some key concerns and finest practices that will help you decide to the best high quality and correct amount of labor whereas preemptively avoiding roadblocks.
Estimate tales earlier than dash planning
Use dash planning to resolve what tales to decide to and don’t get misplaced within the weeds. Diving into the necessities for these tales and estimating how lengthy they could take is a surefire strategy to derail dash planning and lure the group in an unnecessarily lengthy assembly.
The backlog grooming ceremony is a a lot better time to scope and estimate tales earlier than they’re pulled right into a dash. This offers the group time and area to dig into the acceptance standards and totally perceive the hassle with out the added stress of figuring it out instantly. This may additionally floor tradeoffs associated to complexities or dependencies, which can should be evaluated earlier than estimating or committing to the work.
Estimating tales forward of dash planning will help you keep away from dash delays and unrealistic expectations.
Account for unknowns within the dedicated work
Deal with as many unknowns as doable forward of the dash. This may usually be performed by grooming ceremonies, technical spikes, or different pre-work investigations. Nonetheless, some unknowns are unavoidable till the precise work begins.
You need to plan for these situations to keep away from overcommitting to sophisticated work. The easiest way to do that is to account for these unknowns forward of time when estimating tales throughout your grooming ceremony.
For instance, if a narrative feels prefer it’s in all probability three factors, it’s a good suggestion to overestimate the time it’s going to take to account for unexpected points.
Coordinate dependencies with different groups
Dependencies are a catalyst for roadblocks if not coordinated forward of time. And so they can go each methods.
Possibly your group is constructing a characteristic that’s depending on one other group finishing API updates. Or possibly the advertising group is ready to launch a brand new e-mail marketing campaign and your group is working to construct and launch the related touchdown web page.
As a product supervisor, it’s your duty to coordinate and prioritize these dependencies with stakeholders or different product managers previous to bringing the work to dash planning.
Know your group’s true capability for the upcoming dash
Realizing your group’s capability for the work they’ll decide to is vital for profitable planning. This shouldn’t be primarily based solely on previous dash velocity as a result of every dash is completely different.
We already talked about accounting for dash rollover when figuring out your capability for every dash, however there are different components to weigh: Are there any holidays or holidays developing? Are there firm or division offsites? Does your organization do dev days for non-sprint associated pursuits? All of those concerns are vital in understanding your true capability.
Anticipate unplanned work and know the way to reply
Unplanned work can come up in the course of a dash and set your commitments off observe, nevertheless it doesn’t need to be that method. As a product supervisor, it’s your job to evaluate and resolve whether or not one thing is vital sufficient to be pulled into the in-progress dash.
This isn’t to say you need to depart capability open on the off-chance that one thing arises, however you need to head into the dash figuring out that a few of the dedicated work may doubtlessly be sidelined by unplanned work.
There are three most important varieties of unplanned work it’s possible you’ll encounter:
- Essential bugs — these are drop-everything bugs that the group ought to pivot to instantly (e.g., the homepage isn’t loading, funds aren’t processing, and so on.)
- Much less extreme bugs — past vital bugs, severity can vary from low to excessive. Talk about these together with your engineers and stakeholders and gather sufficient data to guage the tradeoffs of pulling them in now versus later
- Pressing characteristic requests — these can come from management, shoppers, or stakeholders and ought to be evaluated fastidiously. Very hardly ever is a characteristic request pressing sufficient that it must occur instantly
Easy methods to put together for a dash planning assembly
Operating an efficient dash planning begins with intentional and upfront preparation.
Previous to planning, you need to have a transparent concept of what you hope to attain within the dash. Early steps embrace product discovery, analysis, consumer testing, and different strategies to find out probably the most impactful work. Should you’re strolling into dash planning with a brand new concept you haven’t correctly vetted, that’s doubtlessly a recipe for catastrophe.
You must also make sure the work is actually able to go. Have the tickets been groomed and prioritized by impression or urgency? Have the mandatory spikes, tradeoffs, and dependencies all been addressed?
If the reply to any of those questions isn’t any, take into account whether or not the work is actually prepared for improvement. In some circumstances, a “no” could also be unavoidable (e.g., a last-minute bug that ought to be addressed however hasn’t been scoped but), however this often isn’t the case.
Easy methods to run a dash planning assembly
When you’ve ready for dash planning, it’s time to run the assembly. We’ve already mentioned the way to decide capability primarily based on rollover work, useful resource availability, and different components, that are all vital to operating a profitable dash planning.
If there’s a single golden rule for product managers to successfully run a dash planning, it’s this: take heed to your group. Builders know their capability and perceive the complexity of the work you’re discussing. Don’t push or problem their experience. If they are saying they’ll decide to not more than 20 factors, don’t push or persuade them to extend it to 25.
Worst case situation, you miss your dash commitments and lose belief amongst your group. Finest case situation, you hit all of your deadlines and your group nonetheless doesn’t belief you. You ought to be main, not dictating.
Typically, this implies the tales you had deliberate for throughout preparation don’t all make it in. Should you’re in tune together with your group’s work and typical velocity, your want listing ought to be fairly near the precise consequence, however don’t be annoyed if the celebrities don’t all align.
Should you’re listening to your group, contemplating capability, keen to make tradeoffs or scope cuts, doing the upfront work for dependencies and prioritization, and perceive the acceptance standards out and in to assist reply questions, your dash planning ought to be a hit.
Dash planning assembly agenda cheat sheet
As described above, quite a bit goes into main profitable dash planning conferences. The dash planning assembly agenda template beneath is designed that will help you maintain observe of an important objects to attain that success.
Pre-meeting preparation
Tales are groomed, estimated, and able to be labored on
Dependencies are coordinated with different groups and/or stakeholders
Backlog is prioritized by accounting for impression, urgency, dependencies, and blockers
Overview of prior dash
Overview work that was accomplished and shipped throughout the dash
Outline effort left on tales or duties rolling over
Determine alternatives for velocity changes or methods to make planning simpler
Outline dash capability
Account for dash rollover and different components that will scale back capability, together with holidays, trip time, offsites, and dev days
Resolve on dash commitments
Non-compulsory: Set a dash aim (keep away from making it “ship x variety of tales”)
Talk about which of the prioritized tales the group can decide to
Facilitate tradeoff discussions (e.g. two 3-point tales over one 5-point story)
Account for unknowns in any of the tales
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