Definition:
Teams to succeed while optimizing the progress of the entire project requires some extra work. The first thing to be done is to look ahead two to three sprints to understand which product backlog items are likely to be worked on. This requires decomposing and refining product backlog items earlier, more detailed items can be found at the top of the product backlog. The next step is to identify any dependencies between the teams.
We have to carry out the steps to optimize and refine the backlog several times to achieve optimal balance between the needs of the individual teams and those of the overall project. Once that’s done we add stories to the next two to three sprints in the release plan. Anticipating requirements does not mean that the teams will actually commit to deliver these more distant items in the same way it is committing to complete the product backlog items of the current iteration. By looking ahead two to three iterations we have successfully avoided the emergency of “my team needs this from you this iteration” that can otherwise be common on large agile projects as there is a scope to resolve dependencies before the team starts developing.
Further Reading:
Book: Agile Product Management with Scrum by Roman Pichler
