The Agile Delivery goes through the journey towards agility, its a plan that helps visualising the steps necessary to allows the transitions in mindset and culture for seamless migration from waterfall.
Big Picture
Delivery Plan - Level 1
A Level 1 delivery plan is the 'how do we get there' plan , it focuses the deliverables that need to be achieved by the whole team and sets the realistic timescales to be met. The business gets a sense of direction and insight as to whether targets will be achieved or not. The delivery plan guides the transparency of the work being delivered and the core dependencies associated to them.
Many agile delivery methods risk lack of direction and committment if there is no or a basic delivery plan, driving the right plan assures that the work stays on track and the business case is always reviewed during the plan to make sure the value for the customer is achieved. The plan is broken down increments:
Each increment is planned or structured in a less rigid manner - as the iterations can change in priority or business need. However, these are needed in order for features or themes to have the correct level of commitment.
Once the increments have been outlined, business committment dates can be set and timelined against the set deliverables. Each of the increments contain sprints, these sprints will require planning at the start, however, the detail for these would follow in the lower level plan (Level 2).
Each of the feature or product teams are then set up, so the core activities can be aligned to them. Here we can identify any dependencies that can be associated between the workstreams. The high level stages associated to a Level 1 Delivery plan are highlighted below:
Features
Workshops should be organised to plan features and plan the teams that are committed to each of those features.
Objectives
For each team define clear project/product task objectives, what will the objectives achieve and whether they will be realistic met?
Roles
Capture the roles and responsibilities for the members of the delivery plan. Ensure each role or groups are captured in the plan, and define clear outcomes based on the objectives defined.
Deliverables
Define deliverables where the business can track realistic progress. Each deiverables should be quantifiable in terms of the working function or value to the business.
Milestones
Set milestones, that can be tracked and allow the teams to be able to demonstrate core features and functionality in a transparent manner. Milestones should have team wide commitment and be realistic and have clear goals.
Dependencies
Identifying dependencies between teams, workstreams and components ensures the right features are created or developed at the right time.
Planning
Once the main components are agreed the planning phase begins. Delivery dates are set and high level tasks are prepared. The teams and the business will be committed to these dates as achievable.
Goals
What are we trying to do and what will we achieve scenarios are created. This will be continuously tracked within the delivery plan.
Commit
Teams commit to deliver in the Sprints, the mindset is to not only to commit to deliver but also meet the quality and cost for the development.
