Overview |  | Roles |  | Work Items |  | Views |  | Index |  | Glossary |

Project Portal
| See Also How To: Create an Iteration Plan |
| ### Next Steps Write Scenario Divide Scenarios into Tasks |
| Activity: Schedule Scenario
Project Manager
|  |  |  | Plan an Iteration |  |
|  | Participating Roles Responsible: Project Manager Consult: Business Analyst
### Overview A scenario is scheduled for development and initial testing in a specific iteration. The iteration plan reflects the most current understanding of what must be accomplished within an iteration. The plan must be completed before the iteration starts. An initial plan is created based on estimates and refined as the scenarios and quality of service requirements are broken into tasks. These tasks are provided with a cost and chosen by the owning developers. If the iteration plan can still be accomplished with the iteration budget, an iteration planning meeting is called. The iteration planning meeting allows all of the appropriate team members to come together to discuss any issues and finalize the iteration plan. # Entry Criteria Dependencies: The scenarios have estimates with the time and resources needed and constraints and the risks identified. The priorities in the scenario list reflect the latest information available on user needs, customer needs, and business goals. # Sub-Activities
1 | Create Initial Iteration Plan | Coordinate with the business analyst to create an initial iteration plan. Obtain the latest prioritized and estimated scenario list. Work with the business analyst to determine the scenarios that will fit in the iteration plan balancing the estimates against the average velocity from the report of the previous iterations and the quality of service requirements and bug allotments. Reprioritize and obtain estimates for additional scenarios if necessary to fill in the iteration plan. Consider any changes to the team velocity, such as vacations or new members, to calculate the iteration budget. Set the iteration field of the scenario work item to the upcoming iteration. Save and publish the initial iteration plan. The scenario is now ready to be written by the business analyst.
2 | Adjust the Initial Iteration Plan | When the scenario is written and the development tasks are added to the iteration plan, the total cost of the work items in the plan should not exceed the average velocity of the development team. If the total work item cost exceeds the budget, move scenarios, quality of service requirements, or bug allotments to the following iteration. Set the iteration field of the work item to that iteration. If the cost of the work items is less than the average velocity, consider adding new scenarios, quality of service requirements, or bug allotments to fill in the schedule.
3 | Hold Iteration Kickoff Meeting | Finalize the iteration plan by holding an iteration planning meeting to present the content for the upcoming iteration. This meeting should include all of the members of the team to review the goals of the upcoming iteration. Communicate any priorities within the iteration. If a scenario or quality of service requirement is critical, mark it as an exit criteria. Use this mechanism sparingly. Risks within the iteration should be determined. If the risk warrants attention, capture it as a risk work item.
# Exit Criteria
| The final iteration plan reflects a reviewed and agreed upon set of scenarios, quality of service requirements, tasks, and slack for bug allotments scheduled for the upcoming iteration.
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