The following article is part of the self-preparation for the modern BVOP® Project Management Certification program.
Release planning is helpful for all stakeholders involved in the project who are interested in the release date of deliverables or of smaller achievements. This interest is usually driven by tracking costs, external events, or contractual relationships.
Release planning is a widespread project management practice, but in the context of BVOP with some modifications, this can be a method of adding extra business value to projects.
Analyzing current issues and preventing future ones is the main focus topic in BVOP practices.
Release plans contain lists of planned efforts and their release time. If planned work is not released within the planned time, it is a symptom of a problem inside the organization, teams, or other parties.
The BVOP suggests that the reasons for unreleased items from the list should be investigated and recorded. If patterns or obvious reasons for release failure are observed, the BVOPM office focuses its attention on resolving these issues on time.
Resolving issues as soon as they occur is a valuable activity that the Business Value-Oriented Project Management (BVOPM) office does for the entire organization, teams, and all parties involved in the project.
Project release planning may also include concepts, prototypes, updates, and versions of the product, so that the immediate validations activities guarantee to provide a desirable, valuable, and usable current outcome.
Product support planning
Product support planning may include planning of possible actions, stages, and practices for the future.
Main subjects of the plan may include:
- Type of work
- Amount of work
- Periodicity of support
- Period of support
- Costs
Type of work
The essence of the work required has to be determined. Identifying the professionals and their skills needed to support the product is also beneficial.
If the team working on product development is unable to participate in the product support stage, a new team is assembled. Environment and tools are planned and eventually provided.
Amount of work
Although the product support may require significant effort, the Business Value-Oriented Project Management (BVOPM) office decides and plans the amount of potential work based on available and foreseeable resources and current product strategies.
Periodicity of support
The periodicity of support needs to be determined in order to plan and distribute resources over time.
Costs
All product support plans are closely related to costs. Product support costs may be a proportion of the total budget for the product or other planned amount.
Project support planning
Planning of project support includes activities not related to product development and support. It may be related to:
- Legal Aspects
- Logistics and transport
- Deliveries
- Implementation
- Operational
- Communications
- Other Events
The following issues related to chapter "Project Release Planning, Project Support Planning and Product Support Planning" are included in the certification exam. The sequence of questions is presented in the table.
The data is current as of September 7, 2024, 2:58 pm
| ID | Issue | Time | Category |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Type of work | 60 sec | PM, PDM |
| 1 | Costs | 60 sec | PM, PDM |
| 2 | Periodicity of support | 60 sec | PM, PDM |
| 3 | Amount of work | 60 sec | PM, PDM |
Comments from the BVOP™ community on “Project Release Planning, Project Support Planning and Product Support Planning”
Summary
Release planning helps stakeholders interested in the project's release date due to cost tracking, external events, or contractual relationships.
Release planning is a common project management practice, but in BVOP it can add extra business value with some modifications. BVOP focuses on analyzing current issues and preventing future ones. Release plans include lists of planned efforts and their release time, and if they are not released on time, it indicates a problem within the organization. BVOP suggests investigating and recording the reasons for unreleased items and resolving issues as soon as they occur. Project release planning may also include concepts, prototypes, updates, and versions of the product to provide a desirable outcome.
Product support planning involves planning for future actions, stages, and practices. The plan includes determining the type and amount of work needed, the periodicity and duration of support, and the associated costs. The team responsible for product development may not be involved in product support, in which case a new team is assembled. Project support planning includes activities such as legal aspects, logistics, deliveries, implementation, operations, communications, and other events.
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