An Introduction to Agile Estimating and Planning

The marketplace is showing much interest in agile methodologies as a way of dealing with complex or high-change projects. While the adoption rate for agile methods is increasing, people interested in trying these new approaches are struggling with a common challenge: how to estimate costs and a schedule up front when using methods that break the project into iterations that uncover requirements and produce an emerging solution design throughout the project. This session will present you with some innovative and practical estimating and planning techniques that can help you cope with the uncertainty of complex projects while still helping you prepare reliable budgets and timelines.

Participants will learn:

• Why we plan in the first place and what makes a good plan
• Why traditional planning fails
• The basics of agile planning including building Release Plans, Iteration Plans and Day Plans
• Estimating with Story Points
• Estimating with Ideal Days
• A 3-step feature prioritization process
• Measuring and forecasting velocity
• An overview of Critical Chain estimating and scheduling
• Why agile planning works