Release Planning vs. Sprint Planning In an Agile environment, planning happens on two levels: release planning and sprint planning. Release planning happens on the first day of every sprint (or iteration) and focuses on the longer-term, strategic goals for the project. The release plan starts with the prioritized and estimated product backlog. It reflects the balance between business value and delivery capability. The release plan establishes the date for the release and the number and length of sprints in the release. Release planning, which also involves estimating new features, concludes with an understanding of what features will go into the sprint backlog for the current sprint.
Sprint planning also happens the first day of a sprint, but deals with the specifics of each sprint (or iteration, if you prefer). The output of sprint planning is the full sprint backlog. By the time you finish your release and sprint planning, you’ll have a roadmap of your product’s releases. Let’s take a closer look at these two key Agile activities.
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