BC2-Schedule For Completion

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  3. Basecamp 2
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  5. BC2-Schedule For Completion

Why

While the Expedition has intentionally developed Smaller Backlog Items and is now Sequencing Work to maximize the flow of value and de-risking the portfolio, a critical next step is to minimize Work in Progress (WIP) and schedule complete Features and Epics for expedited completion. Many organizations maintain cultural/historical affinity for maximizing utilization, keeping teams “busy” and stacking team backlogs from the lens of utilization. 
As a matter of maximizing FLOW, versus utilization, the goal of Scheduling for Completion is to carefully and intentionally orchestrate across dependencies to minimize wait and delay. 
The goal for the Expedition, as a result of accepting accountability for this Outcome, is to focus on making and meeting commitments across interdependent teams by orchestrating all contributing parties to complete their portion in a way that delivers value to the customer earliest. 
This behavior will further drive priority alignment across the organization.

How

Techniques such as Progressive Elaboration, should result in a detailed, sequenced list of priorities in the form of roadmaps owned by the Product Line Team and release plans owned by Delivery Teams. 

The Expedition is responsible for developing this roadmap with a focus on finishing instead of “starting work” or “maximizing resource utilization.”

An expectation is that due diligence is done in release planning to enable high confidence levels in achieving release contents and dates, with emphasis on minimizing surprises. 

A more detailed and predictable release planning cycle is beginning to emerge. Teams are creating a schedule for completion; forecasting future sprints, creating test plans that are agreed upon and developing deployment plans. Teams understand delivery timeline expectations and are motivated to meet those dates for the customer. 

If teams have long/late testing cycles, then a part of scheduling for completion may be to identify what parts of those cycles can be “shifted left” and potentially automated. 

There are many considerations for teams to evaluate when scheduling work for completion, these may include:

Capacity 
Dependencies 
Risks
Estimates
Testing Needs
Continuous Integration (CI)
Environment Availability

Based on these considerations, additional plans to improve the system of delivery may be necessary to further break bottlenecks, streamline dependency management, or de-couple and lean-out the overall system.

Success Criteria

  • WIP limits are defined, managed, and used to assess available capacity for new work 
  • Teams maintain, and adhere to, a clear Definition of Done that drives work beyond just “their backlog” and all the way through to deployment 
  • Detailed, intentional release planning occurs on a frequent basis, wherein a rolling-wave plan and roadmap are maintained, and teams take accountability for date commitments 
  • Dependencies in the release cycle are captured in the plan, and orchestrated in a timely manner, to smoothly navigate the release to on-time completion – teams that represent bottlenecks subjugate their priorities to those of their dependencies, to maximize flow in the system vs. team utilization

Supporting Material 

Coaching Activities

 

Establish WIP Limits to Maximize Flow 

During Release Targeting and Release Planning, Epics and Features are scheduled to completion to limit Epic and Feature WIP 

WIP Limits are Defined & Managed within established variance thresholds 

 

Focus on Finishing/WIP Limits/Schedule for Completion in Release Plan 

Release Plans are laid out to focus on finishing (within WIP limits) to expedite flow of value 

 

Maintain a 9 – 12 month product horizon to inspect 

Teams have the capability to observe disruption patterns coming from outside the system of delivery and tie them to a cost 

 

Identify opportunities to improve the flow of value 

Understand impact/cost of constraints that slow/impede the flow of value Identify adjustments to release plans necessary to adjust to these constraints

Basecamp 2 Outcomes

Smaller Backlog Items     |      Sequence Work      |      Schedule For Completion      |      Strategic Alignment      |      Identify & Plan to Eliminate Waste      |      Economic Prioritization of Improvements