How do we plan in Agile?

Is planning in Agile really any different than regular old planning? Do we need to behave in a specific way? 

While agile planning is certainly very similar to regular planning, there is a difference. In agile planning, we really want to highlight priorities, values, and constraints early on, and when we commit to something, we need to understand the why and the who. 

So, to help you navigate Agile planning and identify these differences, I’ve put together this list of 4 questions to ask yourself and your teams.

If you’d rather watch a video than read, check out my youtube video on this topic: 

Let’s get into the questions about how do we plan in agile:

Question 1: When does it need to be done?

It’s a common misconception that Agile forgoes dates, and this isn’t true. Businesses run on dates – they’re important! Agile is a way to estimate what can be done by a certain date, aka what value can be delivered. We are not choosing between dates and value here. Know the date that your customer has in mind and work backwards to see what you can accomplish in that time.

Question 2: Who needs it?

When we ask “who needs it?” we are thinking about the customer. Who are we servicing with the product/service? Who would care if it’s not done? This might be a business or it could be a stakeholder like another team/department. Either way though, when you know who the customer is, you know who you need to talk to when things go wrong or you need to renegotiate priorities, and this will help you plan better. Maybe even consider inviting them to plan with you!

Question 3: What can we do? What can be done?

Sometimes we receive piles and piles of requirements from a customer and they want everything done by a certain date, but this isn’t realistic! Things will go wrong and issues will arise, it’s just the way things go. So, this is where priorities come into play. If we can identify the must-haves vs. the nice-to-haves, we can decide what fits and what doesn’t, and reorganize and renegotiate from there. 

When a customer has a large request, asking ourselves “what can be done?” instead of immediately jumping to “no, not possible”, we open up possibilities. We can think simplistically and consider what is the most basic thing we can do to satisfy the conditions, like date and functionality. When we assume things can be done, we can get creative! 

Question 4: What is it that we are not doing in order to tackle this thing?

As we discussed above, when we plan in agile, we are talking about priorities. This is the time to think about “are we forgetting something?” and is there someone else asking for something else more important. This question brings awareness and acts as a reminder to the stakeholder or customer that in order to work on this thing, you are pushing other things to the side. Is this okay for your team? Is the customer okay with this?