Hi again. In the previous video, I introduced you to the concept of a value roadmap and described its three main components: product vision, product roadmap, and release plans. A value roadmap helps you determine specific routes for your team to deliver the most value. It uses the basic events of Scrum to define product goals and requirements so the team can deliver a successful final product. In this video, I'll share some tips for creating an effective value roadmap. My first tip is about creating the product roadmap. The product roadmap provides a high-level view of the expected product, its requirements, and an estimated timeline for reaching milestones. Many of those milestones will be product release dates. You'll need to ensure that product release dates are only rough estimates. This is because as an Agile team, you know that things can and do change. This is especially true since these dates could be anywhere from several months to several years down the road. If the roadmap is too specific, it might set the team up for failure because the dates can't be guaranteed. Speaking of product release dates, this leads me to my next tip, which is about the release plans. There are some important things to know about creating a release plan, which includes approximate target release dates. It's very important that the Product Owner and project manager or Scrum Master work together to develop each release plan. This is because the release plans need to connect the product roadmap with the team's capacity and velocity. The capacity and velocity is the measure of the team's ability to complete work at a certain pace. A release plan that isn't connected to the team's ability to complete work could be unrealistic and lead to an unsustainable pace for the team. This would violate one of our Agile principles, which states "Agile processes promote sustainable development." The sponsors, developers, and users should be able to maintain a constant pace indefinitely. If there are any hard dates or deadlines on your road map, meaning a date that cannot change, factor this into release plans that might be affected. For example, Virtual Verde might realize that Office Green has an office decor convention in October, and they want to launch the first face of Virtual Verde services at that event. Communicate hard deadlines with your stakeholders so there's a clear understanding of must-have features. This way, if the team discovers it might be at risk for not meeting the deadlines, they can quickly focus on the must-have features. Since Agile is all about embracing and anticipating change, it might seem like having a release plan goes against the Agile value of "responding to change over following a plan." But having a release plan does not mean you are resistant to change. An Agile team treats a release plan as a living artifact, so the plan can change based on the environment and new information that's received. Some common factors that may result in a change to the release plan could include a change in team velocity, or how much work the team can do in a given iteration or Sprint. This could be from adding or losing team members, or even just efficiency gains from how they work. A second factor is a change to the product scope if the Product Owner approves a change to the product. And a third factor that could affect a release plan is improving the understanding of how much effort is needed to build certain features. The team may discover that a user story or epic is more or less difficult than they originally thought, after doing some research or simply from better understanding the product space. My last tip for creating an effective value roadmap is that the Scrum Master or project manager should always review the release plan before starting a Sprint Planning session. They review the release plan to check whether the team is on track. If the team is off track, the Scrum Master needs to have an open conversation with the Product Owner and business people to figure out what they can adjust to get back on track. This is where the Scrum value of transparency is key. An effective value roadmap is a powerful tool for building and delivering successful products. The plans you create will help you stay focused on delivering maximum value and the ability to remain flexible and stay agile. In the next set of videos, we're going to switch gears and discuss some common challenges that you might encounter when introducing Agile and Scrum or when joining an organization that is transitioning to Agile. I'll share some tips for how you, as the project manager, can help support and coach your team along the way. Meet you there.