Release Planning Simplified
My wife and I have 2 kids whom we adore. We had a parenting philosophy that we would not give our kids cell phones until they were old enough to have jobs to pay for their plans. We felt very confident in that decision as parents, feeling it would instill work ethic and help our kids realize the value of money. That all changed one December day several years ago. There was a bomb scare at my daughter's elementary school, and we had no way of reaching her. We quickly pivoted and changed our philosophy around our kids having cell phones. Given that this happened near Christmas, we decided to gamify the giving of these gifts to our kids. We purchased 2 new iPhones, activated them, charged them up, wrapped them in boxes and put them under the Christmas tree. Then on Christmas morning, my wife and I clandestinely dialed the kid's phone numbers, causing their presents to "ring" under the tree. The kids went nuts. They couldn't tear the wrapping paper off fast enough and were overjoyed at what they found.
Why do we give gifts to people? What do we hope for in return? I can't speak for you, but for me, I do it for the reaction. Seeing the enthusiasm and the happy smiles on the faces of my kids was a moment I'll never forget. In the world of Release Planning, we call this an "outcome." My desired outcome was thrilled kids.
When we plan releases in the world of product development, we would do well to adopt a similar mindset. What is the desired outcome of our stakeholders? Imagine you've got an empty gift basket on a table in front of you. What gifts will you put in that basket in order to get the best possible outcome for your stakeholders? Over-stuffing the gift basket leads to quantity, but not necessarily quality. In fact, the mindset should be "what is the bare minimum I need to put in this gift basket to get the best possible outcome for those stakeholders?" And rather than over-stuffing the gift basket, let's put just a few things in this basket, and a short time later, let's get another gift basket and put just a few things in that one too. In other words, no big releases that happen infrequently but rather small releases that happen often, with each release intentionally geared toward achieving a very specific outcome.
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Why the approach of small and frequent releases as opposed to giant and infrequent releases? Here are some benefits:
What other benefits can you think of related to regular and small releases?
Agilist combines engineer-level technical know how with diplomacy to engage & unite project players at all levels to meet business milestones
1 年Smaller releases are smaller bites of functionality to become expert in quicker, and thus be able to identify areas of other needs that might not have been obvious without 'getting your hands dirty'