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SOP
1005:
Release
Planning
Objective: |
The
objective of this Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) is to document the
first phase of the System Development Life Cycle (SDLC). |
Scope: |
This
SOP identifies the business areas (Contracting Organizations) of the company to for which the business strategy, priorities, and scope of the release/project prior to involving the Performing Organizations (i.e. Engineering) will be determined. In order to implement a release effectively, SDLC upper management needs to establish the infrastructure necessary to make decisions on all priorities across business areas so that Engineering can be effective in responding to the needs of the business. |
Owner: |
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Operating
Procedures:
1000 |
Program/Project
Management |
1040 |
Requirements
Definition |
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SOP 1005 - Release Planning Definitions
Release
Planning refers to the first phase in the System Development Life Cycle.
The main purpose of this phase is for the business areas (Contracting Organizations) of the company to determine the business strategy, priorities, and scope of the release/project prior to involving the Performing Organizations (i.e. Engineering). In order to implement a release effectively, SDLC upper management needs to establish the infrastructure necessary to make decisions on all priorities across business areas so that Engineering can be effective in responding to the needs of the business.
One of the keys to successful Release Planning is having a business strategy for the SDLC product and identifying requests/features that are aligned to that strategy, Release Planning should also include establishing overall budgets and business plans as well as identifying the relative priority of each request being considered for inclusion in a release.
To
ensure that Engineering resources are being used wisely to deliver added
business value; it is essential that requests be submitted using a well-defined
and consistent process.
During
the Release Planning phase, feasibility studies are performed, user requirements
are defined, high level estimates are produced and compared to forecasts of the
Performing Organization’s capacity, business cases are prepared and all
possible projects are prioritised to assist in project selection.
Scenarios may be created to investigate possible combinations of projects
(features) that would be affordable based on the capacity of the Performing
Organization. Many of these
activities are performed on an ongoing basis as new customer requests are
submitted.
The
Product Group does most of the work performed in this phase. Since the owner of this procedure is Engineering, this
document will serve to provide guidelines for the Product Group, by specifying
the expected inputs and outputs needed by Engineering. This will ensure that the Release Planning phase is a success
and that the release may proceed to the next phase in the System Development
Life Cycle, the Definition Phase.
1.
Process
Flow Diagrams
Release
Planning Overview
Click Image to Enlarge
2.
Roles and Responsibilities
Role |
Responsibility |
Release
Planning Review Board
|
The
Release Planning Review Board is responsible for evaluating,
prioritizing, and determining which service requests will be included in
the next release. They
ultimately direct the fate of the release and are the key
decision-makers in the relative prioritization of requests and resource
commitments. The Release
Planning Review Board is appointed by the OCE and should include the
Project Sponsor and representative(s) (Director/V.P. level) from Product
Management, Channel Marketing, Engineering, Technical Support, and
Program/Project Management. With
the exception of the Project Sponsor and Program manager assigned to the
release, the Release Planning Review Board members remain constant
release after release. The Release Planning Review Board may or may not
be the same the Gate Review Board defined below depending on how the
organization structure is defined.
|
Gate
Review Board
|
The
Gate Review Board is composed of representatives from both the
Performing and Contracting Organizations, as well as the Project
Sponsor, Program Manager and Program Manager.
Gate Review Boards assess the deliverables at each gate in the
System Development Life Cycle to insure that requirements have been met. Also, the Gate Review Board’s specific knowledge of the
project’s goals and status allow it to make informed decisions to
which they are held accountable.
Milestone/Gate
reviews provide the mechanism for the management of the Performing
Organization and the Contracting Organization to make decisions
concerning the scope, cost and schedule of the project.
At each review, the members of the Gate Review Board are required to make decisions that are in the best interests of SDLC.
These decisions may involve making tradeoffs to arrive at an
optimal decision. It may be
necessary to omit or remove scope in order to satisfy cost and schedule
constraints. Additional
cost may be approved to maintain scope and schedule commitments.
A schedule delay may be agreed upon to enable required scope to
be delivered within existing budgets.
Each case is unique and must be considered on its specific
merits.
|
Contracting
Organization
|
The
organization that contracts with the Performing Organization to develop
the project/release. The contracting organization for all the releases at SDLC is mainly the Product Group. Other
Contracting Organizations include the Technical Support Group, and the
Engineering Group.
The
following organizations are defined in this document as part of the
Product Group:
-
Sales
and Advertising: The area that sells to ISPs, affinity groups, and
advertisers, in both the domestic and international markets.
-
Marketing
and Product: This area manages the portfolio of features and
functionality for outbound marketing.
-
Strategic
Development: Research and Development group viewing opportunities in
emerging markets and up-selling existing accounts.
|
Performing
Organization
|
The Performing Organization is the enterprise whose employees are most directly involved in defining the user requirements and enhancing the SDLC platform or system as defined by the Contracting Organization. In the
Release Planning Phase, all the Engineering departments will be
considered the Performing Organization. The Engineering Department
consists of Development (Sustaining, Advanced and Strategic),
Validation/Quality Assurance, Operations (OCC, Release Engineering,
Database Administration, Network and Operations Engineering), Systems
Engineering/Architecture and project management.
|
Requestor
|
The
member of the Contracting Organization that requests a new feature or
enhancement to the system. The requestor is responsible for completing a
Service Request Form.
|
Business
Analyst
|
The member(s) of the Contracting Organization who fully analyze and document the user requirements (Scope of Work documents). These members have a good understanding of the SDLC system and a technical background which allows them to understand the impact of each user requirement on the system. They also perform usability studies and prototype the windows and dialog flows.
|
3.
Metrics
Metric |
Description |
Cycle
Time
|
Cycle time is the number of days or hours necessary to complete requirements for a SDLC Business Gate and/or Milestone.
|
Defects
|
The
delivery from one group to another that performs in a sub-standard form,
as measured against specification/acceptance criteria, are recorded and
reported at the end of the project.
(I don't get that sentence)
Root cause analysis from the correction of defects will be
categorized, tracked and reported.
|
Change
Agents
|
Individuals
that analyse a process and recommend ways to improve it will be reported
to Engineering management. These
individuals will receive recognition for their effort to compress cycle
times and/or improve quality.
|
4.
Procedure
Activities
The foundation of release planning is the SDLC Business Gates.
The Release Planning Procedure focuses on Gates 12 through 10. Gate 12
begins Project Start up in which a Project Sponsor and Program Manager are
assigned. Gate 11 begins the process of developing an approved set of features
and a release strategy. Lastly Gate 10, involves approving the Scope of Work
(SOW) for which the organization will commit, and develop the requirements.
Activity |
Description |
Define SDLC Business Strategy
|
Prior to implementing a release, it is imperative that the OCE define a Business Strategy and/or Business Plan for the SDLC product.
A well-defined Business Strategy should define the goals of the
company and the type of initiatives that should be pursued.
Without such a strategy it becomes very difficult, if not
impossible for the Release Planning Review Board to prioritise and to
select which requests/projects should be pursued in any given release.
The remainder of this document assumes that the goals of the SDLC product are well defined and that a Business Strategy is in place.
|
Gather
Service Requests/Funneling Process
|
Requests
are being made from any of the following four department sources:
Engineering, Technical Support, Channel Marketing and Product
Management.
Requests
being made can vary greatly- they can range from a request for the
introduction of a major new business process, to a request for a
relatively minor content change
The
reasons for requests can also vary – bug fixes, content changes,
ISP/client needs, product development service/feature definitions,
advertisers, new content tools, new architecture, etc.
Service
requests begin with the initiation and approval, or rejection, of
requests in the four departments. Each
department assigns designated representatives through whom all requests
within that department flow. These
designated representatives gather Service Requests Forms initiated
within their department and ensure they have been justified, adequately
documented and classified. They
also ensure that each request is evaluated according to the pre-defined
acceptance criteria as defined in the Service Request Form.
|
Initiate
Request
|
A
requestor completing a Service Request Form will initiate the request.
The requestor is responsible for clearly defining the service request by
completely filling out the Service Request Form and forwarding it on to
their designated representatives.
If
the request is not filled out completely, the designated representatives
rejects it and returns the Service Request Form back to the requestor.
|
Maintain
Master List of Service Requests
|
Once
the designated representatives from the functional
areas accept the Service Request Forms, they are sent to the Program
Management Office (PMO), which maintains a master list of all Service
Request Forms from all the functional areas. The Master Request List
will contain all the information entered onto a Service Request Form as
well as the following information:
-
Request
status (Open, Closed)
-
Review
board status (Approved, Rejected, On-Hold)
-
Reject
date
-
Rejection
reason
-
Approve
date
-
Approval
reason
-
On-hold
date
-
On-hold
reason
-
Assigned
release name
-
Priority
number (in release)
-
Interested
parties/distribution list
|
Gate/Activity |
Description |
G-10:
Requirements Scope Lock-Down
|
-
Business
Objective:
Approve the Scope of Work for which the organization will commit
to develop requirements.
-
Owner:
Project Manager
-
Review
Board:
Program Sponsor, Program Manager, Project Manager, Contracting
Organization(s), and Performing Organization(s)
|
Project
Manager
|
The
Project Manager is responsible for ensuring that the following documents
are completed with quality and meet acceptance criteria defined in this
Procedure.
Contracting
Organization (OWN)
Performing
Organization (OWN)
Responsible
for scheduling, notification, meeting materials, meeting facilitation
and meeting minutes for this formal Review
Board meeting.
|
Review
Board
|
Review
the results of the concept phase and commit to the definition and
planning of a project. Target
delivery windows may be established, but this does not constitute a
commitment to deliver the project as it is defined at this point.
The additional definition and planning which takes place during
the definition phase will increase knowledge about the scope, cost and
schedule of the project which may result in changes to any or all of
those parameters.
|
Review
Board
|
The
Review Board’s acceptance of the approved documents by the Receiving
Organization moves each SOW document to the Development Function of the
Performing Organization for analysis.
|
Project
Manager
|
The
Project Manager ensures coordination between Contracting and Performing
Organizations. Project
Managers facilitate meetings and document meeting outcomes. This effort is focused at reducing cycle time and
maintaining the highest level of common understanding between parties.
Further, the Project Manager will refine the project plan
incorporating data available.
|

Click Image to Enlarge
|
G-12:
Project Start
|
|
Designate
Program Sponsor and Project Manager
|
Project
Start begins with the designation of a Program Sponsor and Project
Manager. The Program Sponsor is designated by OCE. The Program Manager
assigns the Project Manager.
|
Develop
Release Strategy
The
OCE with assistance from the Project Sponsor and Program Manager
assigned to the release are responsible for developing a release
strategy, which includes the following:
The
main deliverable from this activity is the Release Definition Document
to be completed by the Project Sponsor with the assistance of the
Program Manager. The Release Definition Document defines the release
timeline, release objectives, business justification, high-level
milestones, high level resource requirements, and risks and
dependencies. Upon completion, both the Project Sponsor and Program
Manager sign the Release Definition Document.
Define
Release Prioritization Criteria
The
Program Sponsor and Program Manager, assigned to the release are
responsible for working with the OCE to develop the release
prioritisation criteria.
In
preparing for the initiation of a release, one of the first steps that
must take place is the establishment of the prioritisation categories,
relative weighting factors and rating scales that will enable the
calculation and assignment of business value.
Prioritize
and Define Initial Release Scope
As
described above, the Service Requests Forms approved by the functional
areas are sent to the Program Management Office that maintains a master
list. Upon kicking off a
project, the master list is given to the Release Planning Review Board
for further review and prioritisation across all groups.
The
Release Planning Review Board evaluates each Service Request Form, using
the pre-defined prioritisation categories/weighting factors and
determines a business value rating.
Using the release timeline and budget defined above, the Release
Planning Review Board determines, at a high level, which of the requests
should be considered for inclusion into the release.
The output from this step is a Prioritised List of requests that
should be considered for inclusion into the release. Upon completion,
the Program Manager and Project Sponsor present this list to the OCE for
approval. The OCE either approves or rejects the list, if the list is
rejected negotiations need to take place between the Release Planning
Review Board and the OCE to determine the first cut at the release
scope.
All
Service Requests that are dropped from the release remain on the master
list maintained by the PMO for future consideration.
Once
the first cut at the release scope is approved by the OCE, the Program
Manager bundles the approved Service Requests Forms together and
distributes them to the Performing Organization(s).
Estimate
the Scope (High Level)
The
Performing Organization Manager(s) receive the first cut of the release
scope along with the Service Request Forms for each item included in the
release. The Performing
Organization Manager(s) provide a “quick quote” resource, time, and
cost estimate for each proposed service request and determines whether
or not the request is technically feasible.
Using the pre-defined release timeline (provided by the Project
Sponsor), request priority number, and the high-level development
estimates, the Performing Organization Manager(s) recommend which
requests can be completed in the release timeframe.
The Program Manager will set up a pre-defined end date for when
estimates need to be complete and returned to the Program Manager.
Revise
Release Scope
The
development estimates are delivered back to the Program Manager who
organizes a meeting with the Release Planning Review Board. If necessary, the Release Planning Review Board revises the
scope and priorities for the release.
All Service Requests that are rejected are placed back on the
master list maintained by the PMO for future consideration.
Finalize
Release Strategy and Features
Throughout
this gate, the
Program Manager is responsible for ensuring the following
documents are completed with quality and meet defined acceptance
criteria:
-
Release
Definition Document
-
“Quick
Quote” Estimate for Release
-
Release
Strategy
-
Timeline
-
R&D
Budget
-
Affordability
Percentage
-
Service
Requests to be included
-
Anchor
objectives
Approve
Release Strategy and Features
Once
all the documents are completed, the Program Manager will meet with the
Release Planning Review Board to provide evidence that all requirements
have been met for Gate 11.
Upon
approval by the Release Planning Review Board, the Program Manager
communicates all materials to the Contracting and Performing
Organizations. The Program Manager will establish a preliminary project
plan incorporating the project strategy and high-level effort estimates
received within this Gate.
|
Click Image to Enlarge
|
G-11:
Project Strategy Lock-Down
|
-
Business
Objective:
Approve
a set of features and project strategy
-
Owner:
Project
Manager
-
Review
Board: Program
Sponsor, Program Manager, Project Manager, Contracting
Organization(s), and Performing Organization(s)
|
Project
Manager
|
The
Project Manager is responsible for ensuring that the documents indicated
in G-11b are completed with quality and meet the acceptance criteria
defined in the Release Planning Procedure (SOP 1005))
|
Organizations:
-
Project
Sponsor
-
Contracting
-
Performing
|
Program
Sponsor (OWN)
-
Project
Strategy including: Timeline, R&D Budget, Affordability
Percentage, Scope of Work definitions and Anchor Objectives.
Contracting
Organization (OWN)
Performing
Organization (OWN)
|
Project
Manager
|
The
Project Manager establishes a preliminary project plan incorporating the
project strategy and high-level effort estimates received within this
gate. Once the above documents are accepted by the receiving
organization the Project Manager will call the Review Board to session
and provide evidence that all requirements have been met for Gate 11.
|
Review
Board
|
Establish
project strategy and the initial project constraints of scope, cost and
schedule utilizing such factors as R & D Budget, Affordability
Models and Anchor Objectives.
Upon
approval, all materials are communicated to the Contracting and
Performing Organizations. The
communication is focused at the approved anchor objectives, project
strategy, initial project constraints and scheduling. The Project
Manager is responsible for communications to all participating project
areas.
|
Create
Scope of Work documents
Once
the initial scope of the release is defined, Business Analysts (from the
Contracting Organization) work with the initial requestors to further
define the requests that have been approved by creating Scope of Work
(SOW) documents (see Appendix B for Scope of Work Requirements). In some
cases, work sessions will be needed with members of Development to
assist with technical questions. These
work sessions should be kept to a minimum to reduce drain on the
technical resources. The Program Manager will set up a pre-defined date specifying
when the SOW’s need to be completed, allowing enough time for the
SOW’s to be adequately defined. All
SOW’s not complete by the pre-defined deadline are at risk to be
dropped from the release by the Release Planning Review Board.
Contracting
Organization performs Quality Review on Scope of Work(SOW)
The
Contracting Organization reviews each SOW for accuracy and completeness
before sending it to the Program Manager.
If the SOW’s are not adequately filled out, they are sent back
to the requestor to be completed.
Review
Scope of Work (SOW) Documents for Completeness
The
Program Manager collects and bundles the SOW’s and gives them to the
Performing Organization managers to provide initial high-level cost and
resource estimates.
The
Performing Organization reviews each of the SOW’s for completeness.
If the SOW’s are not adequately filled out, they are sent back
to the Contracting Organization to be completed.
The Contracting Organization(s) are given 5 business days to
complete this task. If the
SOW is not complete within the stated time period, the SOW is in
jeopardy of being dropped from the release.
In such a case, the Program Manager would escalate the issue to
the Release Planning Review Board to obtain approval to drop the SOW
from the Release.
Develop
Preliminary Resource, Time, and Cost Estimates
Each
Performing Organization (Ops, Dev., QA, MIS, and Tech. Support) reviews
each SOW that impacts them and provides a Project Resource Plan that
includes resource, time, and cost estimates for each SOW. The Project Resource Plan is delivered to the Program
Manager.
Collect
and Distribute Estimates
The
Program Manager totals all estimates and creates an overall estimate for
each SOW. The Program
Manager then totals all the SOW's estimates together to develop a total
estimate for the release. Using
these estimates, the Program Manager meets with the Performing
Organization(s) to determine how many of the SOW's can be completed in
the defined release timeframe. If there is no pre-defined timeframe, the
Performing Organization(s) states how long it would take to complete all
SOWs. The prioritized list created in the previous gate
is now used to recommend the release scope. The Performing
Organization(s), if necessary, makes a recommendation to the Release
Planning Review Board on which SOW’s can be accomplished in the
timeframe of the release and which SOW’s should be dropped from the
release.
Perform
Business Plan Impact Assessment
The
Program Manager meets with the Project Sponsor to review the resource,
time, and cost estimates developed by the Performing Organization(s) for
the release. Also presented at this meeting are any risks, issues, and
dependencies that were identified in the Scope of Work (SOW) documents
that need to be addressed before the project should proceed further.
The
Project Sponsor compares these estimates to the Release Strategy (which
included a timeline, a research and development budget, affordability
percentage, service requests to be included, and any additional anchor
objectives) and develops the Business Plan Impact Assessment.
This assessment recommends whether the delivered features,
timeline, and cost are still justified.
At
this time, the Project Sponsor working with the Program Manager may
choose to discuss various time, cost (resource), and feature (quality)
options with the Performing and Contracting Organization(s).
Create
Initial Portfolio Scope
Based
on the discussions with the Performing Organization(s) and Contracting
Organization(s), the Project Sponsor and Program Manager adjust the
scope of the release accordingly and develop an Initial Portfolio Scope.
This Initial Portfolio Scope lists all the SOWs to be included in
the release. The Initial Portfolio Scope is sent to the Performing
Organization(s) who are responsible for revising their Project Resource
Plans.
Prepare
Package for Gate Review Board
The
Program Manager is responsible for scheduling, notification, meeting
materials, meeting facilitation and meeting minutes for this formal Gate
Review Board Meeting. The
Program Manager packages and prepares the following documents for this
meeting:
-
Scope
of Work Documents - Owner: Contracting Organization(s)
-
Initial
Portfolio Scope -
Owner: Contracting Organization(s)
-
Project
Resource Plan - Owner:
Performing Organization(s)
-
Business
Plan Impact Assessment -
Owner: Project Sponsor
Review and
Approve Project Scope
The
Gate Review Board at this point decides whether the release is still
cost justified by reviewing all of the above documents. If the above
documents are approved, the requirements are locked down and the Gate
Review Board commits the organization to the further definition and
plans the release. This does not constitute a commitment to deliver the
project as it is defined at this point. The additional definition and
planning, which takes place during the Requirements Definition, will
increase knowledge about scope, cost and schedule of the release that
may result in changes to any or all of those parameters.
If
the above documents are not approved, the Gate Review Board either
decides to drop the Release (project) or negotiates with the Performing
Organization(s) and Contracting Organization(s) to revise the timeline,
cost (resources), and/or scope. If the timeline, cost (resources), or
scope is changed, all steps in this Gate will be repeated to revise the
documents needed for gate approval.
|
G-10:
Requirements Scope Lock-Down
|
-
Business
Objective:
Approve the Scope of Work for which the organization will commit
to develop requirements.
-
Owner:
Project Manager
-
Review
Board:
Program Sponsor, Program Manager, Project Manager, Contracting
Organization(s), and Performing Organization(s)
|
Project
Manager
|
The
Project Manager is responsible for ensuring that the following documents
are completed with quality and meet acceptance criteria defined in this
Procedure.
Contracting
Organization (OWN)
Performing
Organization (OWN)
Responsible
for scheduling, notification, meeting materials, meeting facilitation
and meeting minutes for this formal Review
Board meeting.
|
Review
Board
|
Review
the results of the concept phase and commit to the definition and
planning of a project. Target
delivery windows may be established, but this does not constitute a
commitment to deliver the project as it is defined at this point.
The additional definition and planning which takes place during
the definition phase will increase knowledge about the scope, cost and
schedule of the project which may result in changes to any or all of
those parameters.
|
Review
Board
|
The
Review Board’s acceptance of the approved documents by the Receiving
Organization moves each SOW document to the Development Function of the
Performing Organization for analysis.
|
Project
Manager
|
The
Project Manager ensures coordination between Contracting and Performing
Organizations. Project
Managers facilitate meetings and document meeting outcomes. This effort is focused at reducing cycle time and
maintaining the highest level of common understanding between parties.
Further, the Project Manager will refine the project plan
incorporating data available.
|
5.
Forms
Form |
Description |
Service
Request Form
|
Forms
Archive
|
Scope
of Work Form
|
Forms
Archive
|
6.
Exceptions
7.
Tools/Software/Technology
Used
- Procurement Tracking Tool and/or Database
8.
Attachments
(SDLC INTERNAL USE ONLY)
|
|