Presentation from the Prague Agile Kitchen, June 19th, 2018. Robert describes how to plan with multiple teams and multiple stakeholders. LeSS Huge environment.

1. Release Planning at Scale
Robert Batůšek
SolarWinds

2. SolarWinds
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3. The Orion® Platform
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4. Project
• 14 Scrum teams
• 8 teams + 4 teams + 2 teams + Stakeholders
Modules NPM SAM NCM NTA SRMVIM …
Platform
Core NovaUI …
© 2017 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

5. © 2017 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
Motivation

6. Buy a Feature
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www.innovationgames.com

7. © 2017 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
Buy a Feature
Stakeholder Jeff Tom Kate
Budget 60 20 20
Feature A 40
Feature B 25
Feature C 15
Feature D 20
Feature E 50
Feature F 20

8. © 2017 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.
Buy a Feature
Stakeholder Jeff Tom Kate
Budget 60 20 20
Feature A 40 25 15
Feature B 25 25
Feature C 15 10
Feature D 20 5
Feature E 50
Feature F 20 20

9. Preparations
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10. Preparation – Estimates
Sample epics from
previous releases for
comparison
List of potential
epics available
Columns
with T-shirt
labels
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11. Preparation – Estimates
At the end of the session, all
epics are distributed to
columns, usually forming a
bell curve
Columns are assigned
sizes based on sample
epics of known size
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12. Preparation - stakeholders
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Information Budgeting Simulation

13. Sessions
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14. Session 1
Preparation
Stakeholder wishlists
Feature estimated
Budget allocated
Session
Introduce features
Spend bugdet
Prioritize
Distribute to teams/pillars
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Session 1
• 1h is not enough
• Multiple variants of some
features
• Don’t use Confluence table
• Make items less granular
• Groups of stakeholders should
be aligned before the meeting

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Further sessions
• Collaboration present
• New features appeared
• Estimates updated
• Prioritization difficult

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Lessons learned
Collaboration
Transparency
Repetition
Research
too deep
Peak of
work
Needs >
2*Budget

18. Contact
Robert.Batusek@solarwinds.com
linkedin.com/in/robert-batusek-4996394/
@RobertBatusek
© 2017 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

19. The SolarWinds, SolarWinds & Design, Orion, and THWACK trademarks are the exclusive
property of SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC or its affiliates, are registered with the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office, and may be registered or pending registration in other
countries. All other SolarWinds trademarks, service marks, and logos may be common
law marks or are registered or pending registration. All other trademarks mentioned
herein are used for identification purposes only and are trademarks of (and may be
registered trademarks) of their respective companies.