Iteration Planning

Every three weeks at Evant, programmers and product managers conduct an Iteration Planning Meeting. Product managers take turns describing the stories which they'd like to see implemented in the next 3-week iteration. A programmer stands at the board recording these stories. While describing a story, a product manager may field questions from programmers, other product managers, or business managers. Over an hour or so, the board fills up with stories. Next, programmers will have a chance to study these stories, begin to think about which ones they'd like to implement, and begin to estimate how long each story will take in Ideal Programming Days (IPDs).

Some programmers and the XP Coach (seated) surround the board to study the stories. Mini-dialogues happen at the board. Some programmers go off to ask product managers more detailed questions. Gradually the whole programming team approaches the board. The next task is for the team to make their time estimate in Ideal Programming Days (IPDs).

Programmer, Kevin Rugg, considers an estimate. Each programmer will have a chance to place their initials beside a story, along with the number of IPDs they think it will take to complete the story.

Programmer, Karen Bradshaw, initials a story and records an IPD estimate. Once all of the stories contain estimates, the Business team can count up the total number of estimated IPDs, and compare it with the Programming team's velocity (the amount of IPDs that the Programming team can implement over a 3-week iteration). If the total number of IPDs listed beside the stories is 25, but the team goes at a speed of 20 IPDs per iteration, 5 items must be deferred to a later iteration, or redefined for the current iteration.

Some members from the Business team (product managers and executives) confer with the XP Coach about which stories they will need to scratch from the list. Sometimes items don't have to be deferred - but usually they do, as the Business team usually wants more per iteration than the Programming team is capable of implementing. During this phase of the game, some stories may have their scope reduced in order to make room for stories that would have been deferred.

Ultimately, the Business team decides on the final stories that will make it into the 3-week Iteration, based on the Programming team's velocity. The game is now over, and the iteration is ready to begin. All of the stories will be recorded on large posters for the Business and Programming teams to see and update during the iteration.