“We’re agile, we don’t plan” and “We’ll be done when we’re done” were common
statements in the early years following the publication of the Agile Manifesto.
I suspect that many people on some of the early agile teams that took this stance
knew that they were giving up something valuable when they threw planning out
the window. But, theirs was a natural reaction to the prior cultures in which they’d
worked. Too many developers hated planning because the plan had never been of
any personal benefit to them. Instead, plans were often weapons used against the
developers: “You said you’d be done by June; it’s June. Make it happen.”
Chapter Contents
- Progressively Refine Plans
- Don’t Plan on Overtime to Salvage a Plan
- Learning the Hard Way
- Getting There
- If Not Overtime, What?
- Favor Scope Changes When Possible
- Considering the Alternatives
- Project Context Is Key
- Separate Estimating from Committing
- The Right Data to Do This
- Going from Estimate to Commitment
- Historical Velocity Forms the Basis for Committing
- Summary
- Additional Reading