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Prioritize Work Items List
| The WIL should be prioritized before you plan the next iteration. Consider what has changed since the last iteration
plan such as new change requests, shifting priorities of your stakeholders or new risks that have been encountered. |
Refine project plan
| Depending on the results of the previous iteration assessment the Project Manager may need to
revise the Project Plan. Necessary changes can encompass the need to acquire new resources, to
absorb an unplanned effort increase, or to implement a specific change request. If a change affects defined project
milestones, the Project Manager should consult with the stakeholders before committing to them. |
Define the iteration objectives
Work with the team to refine the iteration objectives found in the Project Plan, and document them in the Iteration Plan in order to provide high-level direction to what should be
targeted for the iteration. The objectives should be driven based on Stakeholder priorities, and will be revised as the iteration plan is finalized.
Those objectives are usually defined as high-level capabilities or scenarios that need to be implemented and tested
during the iteration in order to deliver increased value to the customer.
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Commit work to the iteration
The Project Manager works with the rest of the team, and especially the project
stakeholders, to identify the high-priority work items from the Work Items List to be
addressed. The high-level objectives provide guidance on what work items should be considered. The Iteration Plan from previous iteration should include an assessment of the
results and can also be used as input to the current iteration planning. The team reviews its velocity and
determines the amount of work that can be done within the iteration. The team breaks down into tasks those work
items that are assigned to the iteration and estimates the effort to complete each task (see Guideline: Agile Estimation). Typical tasks range from half day to two days in
lenght.
When a team has decided to take on a work item, it will assign the work to one or several team members. Ideally, this
is done by team members signing up to do the work, since this makes people motivated and committed to doing the job,
but based on culture, you may instead have the project manager assign the work.
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Review risks
Throughout the project, new assumptions and concerns may arise. The team identifies and prioritizes new risks
as part of iteration planning, updating the Risk List. Responses to risks are added to the Work Items List, influencing the work that is being planned for that iteration.
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Define evaluation criteria
Each iteration should include testing as a part of the evaluation, and the test objectives and test cases
that need to be detailed. Other evaluation criteria may include successful demonstrations to key stakeholders, or
favorable usage by a small group of target users. Document evaluation criteria in the Iteration Plan.
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