Lesson 2: Plan the release

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In the previous lesson, you logged on as the product owner and created a product backlog with stories. In this lesson, you continue as the product owner and decide which stories can be accomplished in the release.

About this task

During release planning, items are pulled from the product backlog into the release. The product owner completes product research and ranks stories based on that research. The number of stories that can be pulled into a release depends on how much work can be done in the scheduled timeframe, which depends on the team's availability. The release plan can be revised later, and items can be moved back to the product backlog. If needed, other items can be pulled into the release based on stakeholder feedback.

To move work items from the product backlog to the release:

Procedure

  1. In the Login window, log in as the product owner by typing ursula in both the User ID and Password fields.
  2. Open the product backlog in your project by clicking Plans > All Plans, and then clicking Product Backlog.
  3. Pull stories into the release plan:
    1. Hover the mouse pointer over the Actions column of each work item, and select the checkbox.
    2. Move the cursor to the right of each selected checkbox, and click the down arrow that is next to the Create Work Item icon Create Work Item.
    3. In the menu, hover the mouse pointer over Plan number Plan Items For, where number is the number of work items to move, and click Release 1.0.

      work items selected to be moved to release plan

    4. Click Save. The plan is refreshed.
  4. Open the release backlog in your project by clicking Plans > All Plans, and then clicking Release Backlog. The release backlog opens in the plan editor. Notice these details:
    • The work items are moved from the product backlog to the release backlog, as the next image shows.

      Release plan with work items moved from the product backlog.

    • The Progress bar shows a total of 45 points.
    • On the Planned Items tab, the Iterations view shows the release plan and the first two sprint plans.

Results

Because the release backlog is used to maintain the release work, make sure that it contains only the items that are targeted for the release. Next, the scrum master works with the team to identify which items can be contained in the first sprint.