During an iteration planning meeting, I ask the team, “Can you commit to delivering the features we’ve discussed?”  Notice that the question I ask is not “Can you commit to delivering the tasks we’ve identified?”  That is a very different question and a far weaker commitment because it is a commitment to complete a set of tasks rather than a commitment to deliver new functionality.

If new tasks are discovered during the iteration (and they almost certainly will be), a team that is committed to delivering the new functionality described by a user story will try to complete the new tasks as well.  A team that committed to only an individual list of tasks may not.  In either case, it is possible that the newly discovered tasks will take long enough that they cannot be completed during the iteration.  In that case, the team will need to discuss the situation with the product owner and see if there is still a way to meet the iteration goal; they may need to reduce the functionality of a story or drop one entirely.

I ask a team if they can commit after each user story is split into tasks and the tasks are estimated.  For the first few tasks, the commitment will be easy to gain as the amount of time to complete the tasks is rather small.  But as the meeting progresses and as more user stories are brought into the iteration, the answer to my question, “Can you commit?” begins to require some thought.  Eventually, we reach a point where the team cannot commit any further.  If they cannot, they may choose to drop a story and replace it with a smaller one before finishing.

Christopher loves to write articles on all types of subjects. Feel free to visit his newest website which helps people find their next glider rocker chair or glider and ottoman set.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/strategic-planning-articles/ask-for-a-team-commitment-in-software-iteration-planning-1309323.html