Quantitative release planning in extreme programming

Context

Extreme Programming (XP) is one of the most popular agile software development methodologies. XP is defined as a consistent set of values and practices designed to work well together, but lacks practices for project management and especially for supporting the customer role. The customer representative is constantly under pressure and may experience difficulties in foreseeing the adequacy of a release plan.

Objective

To assist release planning in XP by structuring the planning problem and providing an optimization model that suggests a suitable release plan.

Method

We develop an optimization model that generates a release plan taking into account story size, business value, possible precedence relations, themes, and uncertainty in velocity prediction. The running-time feasibility is established through computational tests. In addition, we provide a practical heuristic approach to velocity estimation.

Results

Computational tests show that problems with up to six themes and 50 stories can be solved exactly. An example provides insight into uncertainties affecting velocity, and indicates that the model can be applied in practice.

Conclusion

An optimization model can be used in practice to enable the customer representative to take more informed decisions faster. This can help adopting XP in projects where plan-driven approaches have traditionally been used.