The Product Roadmap and the Release Plan
Release planning and product roadmapping are both important practices to achieve product success. But what’s exactly the difference between a release plan and a product roadmap? How do the two tools fit together? This post answers these questions so you can apply the two planning artefacts effectively.
What is a Release Plan?
A release plan forecasts how a major release is developed. It’s a type of project plan — albeit an agile one — and it usually covers the next three to six months. I use the term major release to refer to a version of your digital product that introduces a noticeable change, for instance, by adding or optimising functionality or enhancing the user experience, and it typically results in a new product version — think of Windows 10 or iOS 9.3, for example.
Release plans come in different shapes and sizes depending on the process used. In Scrum, the release burndown chart is the default release plan. It helps you track the progress from sprint to sprint, anticipate if the relevant product backlog items can be delivered on time and budget (or how long it will take and how much it will cost), and to make the necessary adjustments, such as, reduce or remove a feature, or add a new team member to the team. The following picture shows a sample release burndown chart.
In the chart above, the vertical axis captures the remaining effort in the product backlog required to create the next release, and the horizontal axis captures the number of sprints necessary or available to develop the release. The first data point on the chart is the estimated effort of the entire product backlog before any development has taken place. To arrive at the next data point, you determine the remaining effort in the product backlog at the end of the first sprint. Then draw a line between the two points. The burndown line shows the progress that has been made, and after a few sprints you should see a trend emerge and be able to forecast future progress. The forecast is represented by the dotted line in the chart above.
Read On …
To read the rest of this article and access the remaining tips, please head over to my website: https://www.romanpichler.com/blog/product-roadmap-vs-release-plan/
Learn More
To learn more about the product roadmap and the release plan, attend my Product Strategy and Roadmap training course and read my book Strategize.
Source: https://www.romanpichler.com/blog/product-roadmap-vs-release-plan/
