Roadmaps, Prioritisation and Planning

Overview

Planning is continuous in agile delivery. We plan enough to create direction, alignment and confidence, while keeping enough flexibility to respond to learning.

Roadmap Purpose

A roadmap shows the direction of travel. It explains how outcomes will be approached over time.

A roadmap should help people understand:

• the vision

• the major phases

• the expected sequence of work

• the main releases or increments

• key dependencies

• major risks

• decision points

• intended value

• confidence level

Roadmap Rules

A useful roadmap is:

• simple enough to understand

• visible to the right stakeholders

• reviewed regularly

• focused on outcomes rather than fixed feature promises

• honest about uncertainty

• connected to the backlog

• connected to governance decisions

Planning Levels

We plan at five levels:

1. Outcome Planning

Defines why the work matters.

Typical questions:

• What outcome are we trying to create?

• Who benefits?

• How will success be measured?

• What risk are we reducing?

2. Phase Planning

Defines what must be achieved in discovery, alpha, beta, live or retirement.

Typical questions:

• What evidence is needed by the end of the phase?

• What decision will the phase support?

• What outputs are required?

• What are the entry and exit criteria?

3. Roadmap Planning

Defines the expected sequence of work.

Typical questions:

• What should happen first?

• What depends on what?

• Where are the decision points?

• Where should we build, test, release or stop?

4. Release Planning

Defines what will be released and when.

Typical questions:

• What is included in the release?

• What is excluded?

• What acceptance evidence is required?

• What operational readiness is needed?

5. Sprint or Flow Planning

Defines what the team is doing now.

Typical questions:

• What is the immediate objective?

• What can the team complete?

• What blockers exist?

• What does done mean?

Prioritisation Criteria

We prioritise based on:

• user value

• customer value

• risk reduction

• legal or regulatory need

• security importance

• operational importance

• delivery dependency

• technical dependency

• effort

• urgency

• commercial impact

• learning value

MoSCoW Prioritisation

MoSCoW can be used where helpful:

• Must have: essential to the phase or release

• Should have: important but not essential

• Could have: useful if capacity allows

• Won't have now: not included in the current timebox

MoSCoW should not be used as a substitute for hard trade-off decisions. If everything is marked must-have, prioritisation has failed.

Prioritisation by Phase

Discovery priorities:

• understand the problem

• identify users

• identify constraints

• test whether further work is justified

Alpha priorities:

• test risky assumptions

• compare options

• learn quickly

• avoid premature production build

Beta priorities:

• build usable service increments

• validate with real users

• assure security and quality

• prepare for live

Live priorities:

• maintain service health

• improve performance

• respond to user evidence

• manage technical debt

Retirement priorities:

• protect users

• protect data

• manage transition

• decommission safely

Planning Evidence

Planning artefacts should include:

• roadmap

• backlog

• release plan

• milestone plan

• sprint plan

• dependency log

• decision log

• RAID log