Forecasting and Release Planning Flashcards
What is a forecast?
A prognosis or estimate of future events, trends, or outcomes. It is made based on known information and analysis of past and present conditions.
Can a scrum team forecast the delivery of PBI’s?
Yes, based on their trends and history if they seek insight into when work may be completed on the product backlog.
What is a product release?
When a team delivers a new or updated experience to their customer in order to gain feedback and deliver value.
What are the benefits of planning and carrying out small releases?
- Opportunities: Faster user feedback, learning and course correction
- Reduced risk: potential issues are caught earlier
- Improved focus and transparency on progress toward goals
- Increased effectiveness
Can a scrum team release multiple times in a sprint?
When a scrum time practices continuous integration, continuous delivery and continuous deployment, they can deliver to customers at any point in time. This allows them to release several times during a sprint, or even several times a day.
Should a forecast include uncertainty?
Yes. When a scrum team communicates a forecast, they should be sure to include the uncertainty involved. Everyone in the team as well as stakeholders must understand that their forecasts will change as more information emerges, conditions evolve and impediments are identified and removes.
What can burn-down or burn-up charts be used for?
To create transparency on the progress that a scrum team is making over time toward the completion of a given amount of work.
What is the difference between a burn-down and burn-up chart?
A burn-down chart shows the work that is still remaining at a point in time, while a burn-up shows the amount of work completed toward a target. “Work” can be expressed in number of PBIs, story points or some other measure.
What is “the cone of uncertainty”?
Forecasting uncertainty by projecting an optimistic projected trend line and a pessimistic projected trend line.
Do burn-down and burn-up charts give insights into value delivered?
No. They are only good for tracking progress in the form of outputs instead of outcomes.
What is a probabilistic forecast?
A calculation that forecasts when a certain item will be completed (i.e. there will be an 85% chance that the work will be completed by Feb 11, 2025; but only a 50% forecast that it will be completed by 8 Feb 2025.
What is unrealized value?
The “satisfaction gap” between the outcomes that customers currently experience and the outcomes that they would like to experience.
What can story mapping be used for?
To develop a multidimensional view of their product backlog as it links together a user’s journey using a product, the work that is required to satisfy these activities and how those user stories can fit into sprints and releases.
What is road mapping?
A technique used for planning releases. For them to be useful, they should be incomplete allowing the product owner to make decisions as the team adapts to what they learn from each release. The roadmap then serves as a flexible tool to discuss vision, goals, strategies and opportunities instead of a fixed list of work for x amount of time.
