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| Plan an Iteration Project Manager
|  | Participating Roles Responsible: Project Manager Business Analyst IPM Officer Accountable: Project Manager Consult: Any Informed: All
### Overview Iteration planning involves last minute reevaluation of the project backlog and prioritization to select a backlog mix for the iteration. Based on the backlog selected, an iteration plan including staffing, resources, skills, budget, schedule, scope estimate, and organizational and communication plans should be submitted to the integrated project management office for approval. All identified project stakeholders should be asked to commit and to sign off on the iteration plan. # Entry Criteria Master Schedule Organizational portfolio master program schedule. Product Vision Statement The vision for the product of the current project. Peer Review Data Data from previous iteration peer reviews. Previous Iteration Reports Metrics gathered from any previous iterations. Scenarios List of scenarios on the project backlog. Qualities of Service List of qualities of service on the project backlog. Other requirements List of other product requirements from the project backlog such as security, operational, interface, and functional. Change Requests Any change requests listed as approved on the project backlog. Bugs All open bugs on the project backlog. UI Flow Model A wireframe model of the user interface interaction. Domain Model A model of the problem domain for the product. Existing Architecture The existing product and enterprise or program (if any) architecture. When: At the start of each new iteration # Activities
1 | Select Iteration Backlog | A just-in-time prioritization of iteration work items from the project backlog.
2 | Iteration Analysis | Analyze the selected requirement work items from the project backlog and break them into tasks which can be estimated.
3 | Plan Knowledge and Skills | Based on the product architecture and the analysis of the selected iteration backlog, determine the knowledge and skills required to successfully complete the iteration.
4 | Plan Iteration Resources | Based on the selected iteration backlog, determine the resources (in terms of staffing, equipment, and facilities) required to complete the iteration successfully.
5 | Form Iteration Team(s) | Separate the project staff into work groups or small teams (typically, around six people per group is recommended to minimize communication overhead).
6 | Define Iteration Roles and Responsibilities | Based on the staff assignments to iteration team(s), define the roles and responsibilities of team members.
7 | Identify Iteration Stakeholders | Based on the intended iteration backlog, identify all the stakeholders required to successfully complete the items on the backlog.
8 | Plan Iteration Stakeholder Involvement | Form a plan to gain commitment from all stakeholders and keep them engaged and committed throughout the project. This plan is used in operational management to monitor stakeholder involvement against the plan and to raise issues or flag risks due to lack of involvement. A good stakeholder involvement plan is critical to driving transparency into the process of commitment from all team members and external sponsors.
9 | Estimate Iteration | Based on the analysis of work items in the proposed iteration backlog, gather estimates in person days for each work item.
10 | Define Iteration Budget and Schedule | Based on the estimates for work items and the proposed iteration staff, define a budget and schedule estimate including a proposed length (or end date) for the iteration.
11 | Define Communication Plan | Define the lines of communication between working groups and identify team members with roles and responsibilities for communicating within the team and externally to the wider organization.
12 | Iteration Plan Review | Review the iteration plan with the proposed iteration team members and the project sponsor. Revise the plan as required.
13 | IPMO Iteration Review | Take the iteration plan to the IPMO meeting. Review and revise the plan with the wider program against the organizational portfolio of projects.
14 | Hold Iteration Launch | Educate the team about the iteration backlog, team members and their roles, communication plan, goals, and any other relevant information to start the iteration.
15 | Obtain Iteration Commitments | Based on the final plan revised against the whole organization project portfolio, obtain commitments to the iteration plan from all iteration team members and the project sponsor.
16 | Conduct Previous Iteration Retrospective | Discuss what went well and not so well in the previous iteration and generate improvement suggestions.
# Exit Criteria
| A list of the tasks to be completed in this iteration.
| A definition of the staff assignments and the channels of communication as well as roles and responsibilities for the iteration.
| The committed iteration estimate including budget, scope, and schedule.
| Based on the iteration plan, signal any future activities which can now be planned with a firm start date, such as user acceptance testing based on planned availability of shippable working code.
© 2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. MSF for CMMI Process Improvement: 1.00.0000.00 |