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10 Ways of Planning in Agile Projects

By: Hajime Estanislao, PMP, CSM; Editor: Geram Lompon; Reviewed by: Dr. Michael J. Shick, MSPM, PMP, CSM

Do you struggle to keep your Agile projects on track due to shifting requirements and tight deadlines? Traditional planning methods may be insufficient and can leave your team scrambling to adapt, resulting in missed deadlines, budget overruns, and frustrated stakeholders.

Imagine a flexible approach that enables your team to thrive in dynamic project environments, delivering results and outcomes. Agile planning offers that. It’s more than just ticking off tasks from the checklist; it’s about collaboration, innovation, and fulfilling project milestones to deliver value.

How about having a clear plan for Agile planning, a guide that helps you understand the agile planning process and enables your team to succeed consistently, sprint after sprint? With the right approach, you can transform your plan, ensuring you meet your project goals. Whether you are managing software development projects or leading a cross-functional team, Agile planning can be the game-changer to tip the balance.

Do not let poor planning ruin your project. Discover ten ways to Agile project planning. Whether new to Agile or looking to refine your skills, these strategies will equip you with the information you need to lead your team.

Basic Description of Planning in Agile for Project Managers

Planning in Agile is a dynamic approach to project management where the planning process is continuous and flexible so your teams can adapt to changes as they arise.

Agile planning is different from traditional project management because it starts with general plans for the whole project and then fills in the details bit by bit in shorter periods of time.

This approach enables agile project managers to respond to shifting priorities, evolving requirements, and unexpected challenges, so your team remains focused on delivering value with each iteration.

In Agile, planning is a collaborative and ongoing activity that involves the whole team. This helps everyone stay on the same page and work together towards a shared goal.

A colorful planning board illustration features a large central compass surrounded by various icons, including a rocket, clock, calendar, graph, pencils, gears, and an orange flag. "SPRIST PLANNING BOARD" is written in several places, along with a filled planning chart.

Reasons You Need to Know Planning in Agile Contexts

Agile planning includes scheduling tasks and promotes flexibility, team collaboration, and adaptation to new challenges and opportunities. Mastering Agile planning helps you to deliver projects that meet stakeholder expectations.

Adapt to Change

Agile planning helps you manage evolving requirements and shifting priorities without derailing the project. In traditional project management, risk management involves preventing known risks from happening. Change can also pose a positive risk that project managers can take advantage of.

Deliver Value Continuously

By focusing on iterative planning and implementing agile software development techniques, you ensure that every phase delivers measurable value to stakeholders. You start with a minimum viable product (MVP). The MVP promotes accepting and providing feedback, further refining the value delivered to customers.

Enhance Team Collaboration

Agile planning creates a collaborative environment in which the entire team is involved in the planning process, leading to better alignment and ownership.

Improve Stakeholder Engagement

Regular planning and feedback loops keep stakeholders informed and involved, reducing the risk of misunderstandings or misaligned expectations. Facilitating stakeholder engagement also removes roadblocks or bottlenecks the project may encounter.

Increase Project Flexibility

Agile planning allows you to adjust plans in response to new information, ensuring your project remains on track. Changes are costly, which is why Agile advocates flexibility.

Mitigate Risks Early

By planning in short cycles, potential risks are identified and addressed sooner, reducing the likelihood of issues later in the project. In contrast, beneficial risks can also be considered and shared.

Support Continuous Improvement

Agile planning focuses on looking back at what has been done and making improvements to the process. This helps team members make their approach better and achieve improved results.

An illustrated image showing various agile planning activities. People collaborate around planning boards and charts with terms like "SPRINT PLANNING," "USER STORY," and "PLANNING IN AGILE" prominently featured. Colorful icons and graphics depict teamwork and strategy.

Examples of Planning in Agile

Planning in Agile is versatile and can be adapted to suit different project needs and environments. Here are ten practical examples of Agile planning:

1. Creating a Product Vision

A software development team starts by defining a clear product vision that outlines the project goal. This vision guides future planning activities, ensuring the agile software, techniques, and team remain aligned on delivering a product that meets user needs and business objectives.

2. Developing a Product Roadmap

A project manager in an Agile environment creates a product roadmap outlining milestones and features to be delivered over the next six months. This roadmap is shared with stakeholders to align expectations and provide a high-level view of the project’s direction.

A visual representation of the MoSCoW method for prioritization, divided into four quadrants: Must Have, Should Have, Could Have, and Wouldn't Have. Each quadrant is color-coded and labeled. Around the circle are sticky notes, flowers, and various project items.

3. Prioritizing the Backlog Using MoSCoW

An Agile team uses the MoSCoW method to prioritize their product backlog. They categorize tasks into “Must have,” “Should have,” “Could have,” and “Won’t have” to ensure that the most critical features are developed first, aligning with business priorities.

4. Conducting Release Planning

A team working on a mobile app release plans out the features and fixes included in the next update. They estimate the time needed for each item and set a release date that aligns with market demands, ensuring timely delivery.

Illustration of a team conducting a sprint planning meeting in an agile workspace. Team members sit around a table with laptops, while one person stands, pointing at a Kanban board displaying columns: To Do, In Progress, Done, and story points numbers.

5. Executing Sprint Planning with Story Points

During sprint planning, a team uses story points to estimate the complexity of each deliverable. They commit to completing a set of stories within the sprint, balancing workload and team capacity to ensure realistic and achievable goals.

6. Daily Standups for Continuous Alignment

Every morning, a development team holds a 15-minute standup meeting where each member shares their progress, plans for the day, and roadblocks they are facing. It keeps the team aligned and allows for quick adjustments if needed.

Illustration of a project management workspace with a Kanban board labeled "To Do," "In Do," "Progress," and "Done." People work at desks with computers, sticky notes on walls, plants, graphs, and checklists, and an airplane drawing on a teal background.

7. Using Kanban for Visual Planning

A team managing a continuous delivery project uses a Kanban board to visualize their work-in-progress (WIP). They move tasks through columns such as “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done,” allowing the team to manage their workflow and limit work in progress.

8. Conducting a Sprint Review with Stakeholders

At the end of each sprint, a team hosts a sprint review meeting to demonstrate the new features they have developed to stakeholders. This meeting provides an opportunity for feedback and ensures that the product is evolving in line with stakeholder expectations.

A diverse team of people sitting around a table, conducting a sprint retrospective meeting. Behind them is a board with columns labeled "What Went Well" and "What Didn't Go Well," featuring sticky notes and icons. Charts and graphs are displayed on easels.

9. Holding a Sprint Retrospective for Continuous Improvement

After completing a sprint, the team holds a retrospective to discuss what went well, what did not, and how they can improve in the next sprint. They identify actionable steps to enhance their processes, fostering a culture of continuous improvement.

10. Backlog Refinement Sessions

An Agile team regularly conducts backlog refinement sessions to prepare for iteration planning of the upcoming sprints. They review and clarify user stories, adjust priorities, and update estimates, ensuring the backlog is ready for the next iteration.

These examples illustrate how Agile planning can be tailored to various scenarios, helping agile teams stay focused, adaptable, and aligned with their project goals.

Illustration depicting a productivity workflow diagram with interconnected gears and icons representing goals, collaboration, flexibility, continuous feedback, and task progress. Elements include clipboards, targets, clocks, checkmarks, handshakes, and hourglasses.

Key Considerations for Successfully Planning in Agile Projects

When planning in Agile projects, it is paramount to embrace flexibility and continuous learning as core principles. Unlike traditional project management practices, Agile requires teams to be comfortable with uncertainty and change, as plans will likely evolve.

Successful Agile planning involves creating a plan and continuously refining and adapting it based on real-time feedback and new information.

Another consideration is team collaboration and stakeholder involvement. Agile planning should be a collaborative effort where the entire team, including stakeholders, has a voice. It ensures that the plan reflects the collective insights and priorities of everyone involved in the agile project, leading to more effective execution and better alignment with business goals.

Maintain a balance between long-term vision and short-term goals. While Agile planning emphasizes iterative cycles and adaptability, keeping an eye on the overall project vision and roadmap is essential to ensure that each iteration contributes meaningfully to the project’s success.

Alternative to Planning in Agile: Rolling Wave Planning

While Agile planning offers flexibility and adaptability, there are alternative approaches that can be effective depending on the project requirements. One alternative is Rolling Wave Planning, which, like most Agile methodologies, embraces a progressive approach to project management.

In Rolling Wave Planning, detailed planning is done for the immediate phase or iteration, while future phases remain flexible. As the project progresses and more information becomes available, those future phases are elaborated. It allows teams to plan with the most up-to-date information.

Another approach is the Phase-Gate Iteration, which combines elements of Agile and traditional project management methods. This approach divides the project into larger phases, each separated by a “gate” or review point.

Before proceeding to the next phase, the project team must meet specific criteria or deliverables, which are then reviewed by stakeholders to check alignment with the definition of done (DoD). This method allows flexibility within the phase while maintaining structured checkpoints that ensure the project is on track before proceeding.

Most project managers know traditional waterfall planning. It involves planning all project phases in detail before work begins. Each phase must be completed before proceeding to the next, making it less flexible than Agile or Rolling Wave Planning.

However, it is highly effective for projects with well-defined requirements and low levels of uncertainty, such as construction or manufacturing projects.

A visually intricate graphic illustrating business agility with interlocking gears, chess pieces, a rising arrow, and various icons. Text labels such as "Agility," "Planning," "Achieving Agility," and "Continuous Improvement" are integrated throughout the design.

Final Thoughts: Agility in Planning and Planning to Achieve Business Agility

In conclusion, Agile planning is a powerful approach that allows teams to remain flexible, responsive, and aligned with business goals. Agile planning helps teams deliver value and adapt to changing requirements by using iterative planning, continuous feedback loops, and close collaboration.

Whether managing a software development project, leading a cross-functional team, or striving to enhance your organization’s overall agility, mastering Agile planning can help you achieve long-term success.

By integrating your agile project management tool kit, you can ensure your team is prepared for the challenges ahead and positioned to thrive in dynamic business environments.

References

Di Fiore, A. (2018, September). Planning doesn’t have to be the enemy of agile. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2018/09/planning-doesnt-have-to-be-the-enemy-of-agile

Comella-Dorda, S., Kaur, K., & Zaidi, A. (2018, February). Planning in an agile organization. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/planning-in-an-agile-organization

Landau, P. (2021, August). What is agile project planning? An introduction for beginners. ProjectManager. https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/agile-project-planning

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