Workflow Detail: Plan for Next Iteration

Disciplines > Project Management > Workflow > Plan for Next Iteration

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Purpose

The purpose of this workflow detail is to create an Iteration Plan, which is a fine-grained plan to guide the next iteration. The Iteration Plan should be reviewed by the customer and other stakeholders. This review also gives the customer visibility of the project's expectations of customer participation and resources—particularly if the iteration is intended to deliver artifacts or deploy software—so the customer can make appropriate plans. In the Unified Process for EDUcation, it is strongly recommended that the scope and resources of an iteration are actively managed to meet the planned end date, that is, a timeboxing approach is used. This means that the Iteration Plan may be changed during an iteration, as schedule problems arise and are rectified.

How to Staff

The Project Manager needs a combination of planning, risk management and estimation skills, and an appreciation for the technical content of the iteration, because the iteration's contents will be decided based on considerations of risk, the need to demonstrate or deliver certain artifacts and capability, and the natural order imposed by integration. The Project Manager will work closely with the Analyst and Designer in the preparation of the Iteration Plan. The Project Reviewer should have similar skills to the Project Manager, and also needs good domain understanding.

Work Guidelines

The Project Manager should work closely with the designer to define the iteration's contents. The Iteration Plan should be evaluated internally, through walkthrough and review, before being presented for the Iteration Plan Review, in particular:

to assess the clarity of expression of the evaluation criteria for the iteration
to reach agreement internally that the planned artifacts can be built with the effort and time available
to ensure that the results of the iteration will be testable or otherwise demonstrable; that is, the iteration will have a tangible outcome