PMP Q #19 – Forecast a Releasable Product
Q19. How can an agile team forecast the time to have a releasable product based on business goals?
A. By doing Iteration Planning.
B. By doing Release Planning.
C. By preparing the Product Roadmap.
D. By estimating Story points for the complete product backlog
Let’s first explore – What is a releasable product?
Every iteration delivers an increment, but the business may or may not deliver it to its users. If it goes to users, you call it a release. A release is a version of the product delivered to its users, and a releasable product comes after a few iterations.
The question asks which option can help forecast the time to have a releasable product.
Let’s see the options that we can eliminate as wrong answers –
Option A – “By doing Iteration Planning.” – The goal of iteration planning is to select product backlog items to deliver at the end of the iteration. The main focus is to explore what and how the team can build during the iteration. So, it focuses only on a given iteration; it does not help forecast the time for a releasable product based on the business goal.
Option D – “By estimating Story points for complete product backlog” – A releasable product increment may not require the whole Product Backlog, and estimation of it probably is not needed. So this is not the correct option.
So now we have two remaining options, B and option C. Let’s look at them one by one –
Option B – “By doing Release Planning” – Release planning helps explore the desired outcome for the upcoming releases. So, release planning is primarily inclined towards giving the forecast of a time for a releasable product to achieve the desired business goal. It looks like this is the correct option.
Option C – “By preparing the Product Roadmap” – The Product Roadmap is a long-term direction to explore how the team can achieve vision over multi-years. It communicates long-term product development direction. So, it focuses more on setting the path rather than predicting a timeline for an upcoming release. So this option does not help forecast the time for a releasable product based on business goals.
As you can see, option B is the correct option in forecasting the time to have a releasable product based on the business goals. The idea here is that release planning guides predict a releasable product based on a business goal rather than on detailed requirements. So, there could be an adjustment in the requirement if it is needed to achieve the business goal.
