Rolling Wave Planning in Agile – A Brief Introduction

Rolling wave planning is a key strategy used in agile project planning. Near-term work is planned in detail and future work is planned at a higher level. Planning is done in waves as the project progresses and becomes clearer. See Illustration 1 below:

Why Is Rolling Wave Planning Important To Agile Development?

Agile welcomes changing requirements, even late in development to allow a competitive advantage. Rolling wave planning allows scope change to happen as the project moves ahead. Agile plans at multiple levels throughout the project. From strategic planning, release planning, sprint planning, and daily stand ups; rolling wave planning allows change.

Rolling wave planning satisfies the lean approach of eliminating waste. Creating very detailed, extensive upfront project plans based on assumptions for an entire project is waste. Rolling wave planning eliminates this by only planning what is known and leaving the rest for future consideration.

Levels of Rolling Wave Planning

Let’s look at the different levels of planning that happen on an agile project. See Illustration 2 below:

There are 4 basic levels of planning in agile.

Project-Level Planning

• Purpose – Initial planning meeting to set up high-level project expectations
• Frequency – Once at the beginning, may require multiple iterations
• Attendees –
  • C-Level stakeholders
  • Project manager
  • Product owner
  • Scrum master
• Tips:
  • Held at beginning of project – usually timeboxed to 4-16 hours.
  • The product owner usually creates the agenda and leads the meeting, although it could vary in different organizations.
  • For larger projects, it can be conducted periodically – every 12 months or so.

Release-Level Planning

• Purpose – A meeting held to plan features, user stories, and overall objectives for one or many releases. The goal is to have a plan for the release and to establish a high-level effort.
• Frequency – Once for every release
• Attendees –
  • C-Level stakeholders
  • Project manager
  • Product owner
  • Scrum master
  • Development team
• Tips:
  • Make sure to present the product vision, high-level milestones, and key dates.
  • The product owner should lead this meeting.
  • Must be conducted regularly, based on agreed upon release dates.

Sprint-Level Planning

• Purpose – A meeting that occurs just before each development sprint. The goal is to have the team agree upon a set of product backlog items they can commit to completing in a given timebox.
• Frequency – Once for every sprint
• Attendees –
  • Project manager
  • Scrum master
  • Development team
• Tips:
  • Sprint length should be 30 days or less, depending on the size and complexity of project. Most projects are usually 2-3 week sprints.
  • The product owner creates sprint goal.
  • Product owner presents the sprint goal and user stories to be completed by the development team.
  • Developers need to ask questions and discuss how they will complete the work as a team.
  • Conducted at the beginning of each sprint, 4-8 hours, (2 hours for each week).
  • The team must agree upon their commitment to complete the work within the given timebox (1-4 week sprints)

Daily Stand-ups

• Purpose – A meeting held once a day, the entire development team attends.  It helps to facilitate team communications and ensures the team is working on / towards the same priorities and end goals.
• Frequency – Held everyday
• Attendees –
  • Scrum master
  • Development team
  • Product owner
• Tips:
  • Daily stand-ups must happen every day, at the same time and in the same location.
  • Timebox to 15 minutes
  • Team answers 3-questions:
    1. What have you done yesterday?
    2. What will you do today?
    3. Are there any impediments are in your way?

Conclusion

Rolling Wave Planning is important because it facilitates iterative planning, which is a key agile component. It should come naturally as long as you have each meeting on a regular cadence. Be sure to make the most out of release planning, sprint planning, and daily stand-ups.

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