How do we do ‘proper’ Release Management while doing Agile Software Development? When you think of Release Management, do you think of things like: Confidence Intervals, 3-Point Estimation, Function Points, Complexity Theory, and Monte Carlo simulations? Do you think that the way most people manage Agile Software Releases is ineffective, simplistic, and often inhibits Agility?

Do you need more than crude guesswork? Are expectations hard to manage?

If so, this class is for you.

Release Management is difficult, and involves all facets of Product Ownership - from the Teams (where development takes place) to the Stakeholders (where expectations are managed).

• First, and most important, each Team’s Product Owner must empower, enable, and protect the Team so that it can get its work Done without devolving into Chaos - this is what provides manageability.
• Second, each Team’s Product Owner must ensure that external Product Owners get the information they need in order to manage their Releases.
• Finally, external Product Owners do the actual Release Management; this is where Cost, Scope, and Schedule are monitored, managed, and kept in balance by manipulating their Product’s Backlog.

None of this is easy; Product Owners have many tough decisions to make in order to manage their Releases successfully.

• Learn how to use Scrum’s Guardrails to help a Team avoid Chaos
• Learn how to use Function Point techniques to quantify functionality
• Learn how to use Monte Carlo Simulations to help decide on a Release Forecast
• Learn how to use BuildUps and Earned Value Metrics to monitor progress and make informed decisions throughout the Release
• Learn how to use metrics and Simulations to answer the tough questions: “What should our budget be?” and “How are we doing so far?”
• Learn About: Complexity Theory, Cynefin, Confidence Intervals, Earned Value Metrics (CPI, SPI), Monte Carlo Simulations, Scrum’s Guardrails (to avoid Chaos), and how this all comes together to form Agile Release Management