Your new agile project is faced with a challenging deadline and an anxious customer. He hears the team has spent “two whole days” doing t-shirt sizing of the product features, and yet they still haven’t produced a viable schedule model! He calls you into his office to explain how this is justified, given the limited time available. What do you say?
A. Agile devs don’t plan when the work will be finished
B. Agile teams need to develop quick, coarse-grained estimates to do jut enough planning to get the work started
C. The agile approach means doing as little planning as possible so the team can focus on delivering value
D. The is still too much uncertainty about the product features to develop a schedule model yet
B. Agile teams need to develop quick, coarse-grained estimates to do just enough planning to get the work started
In Agile, initial planning and estimation activities, such as t-shirt sizing, are crucial for providing a rough idea of the effort required for various features. This allows the team to create a prioritized backlog and begin work in a structured manner, even if detailed scheduling is not yet possible. This approach balances the need for some level of planning with the flexibility to adapt as more information becomes available.