Agile Tutorial - Release Planning / Sprint 0

Release Planning or Sprint 0 is a key event in Agile process. Here the entire team participates to create a Release backlog from Product backlog along with a release plan/schedule. It is focused on only one release. A release cycle is generally of 3-4 months.

In release planning, Product backlog consisting of features/epics is further groomed by adding User stories. These are prioritized and estimated. Based on team capacity (also known as velocity), sprints are planned along with release (deployment) date.

Few key points -

• Release planning is the first meeting where entire core scrum team participates. This runs for 2-3 weeks.
• Product owner shares the Product vision and Roadmap which is the output of first two levels of planning meetings.
• Based on the Roadmap, Epics/Features for this release is the only focus.
• Depending on the state of the Backlog, two key activities happen - 
• Story breakdown
• Backlog grooming
• In these activities, epics/features are converted to user stories.
• One user story is one requirement which has a specific format and follows INVEST principle. It is small and detailed enough that it can be estimated.
• User story prioritization is done - 
• Using MoSCoW analysis
• By assigning business value
• By assigning requirement clarity
• By assigning technical clarity
• User story estimation is done using Planning Poker/ Wideband Delphi techniques. Estimation is done by developers and testers of team in Story Points.
• Parallel activities like High level architecture/design, prototyping is done. Team setup like desktops, software, licenses installation/procurement is done in parallel. If number of team members is high, then team division is also done.
• Team will now have a prioritized and estimated Release backlog.
• Using the Triple Constant Triangle technique, Release plan/schedule is prepared having following details - 
• Number of sprints and their dates.
• Release/Deployment dates.
• Planned velocity and their projections.