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I need to prepare an internal product release road-map for product being built via scrum methodology, and have some difficulty correlating sprints to the road-map.

The main problem is that as I don't have effort estimations for every story, because these prepared immediately before each sprint, so I don't know what will make into which sprint.

I'm fine with changing the road-map as the development goes on, but need it to give at least some indication when things planned to be released.

So what would be the best way to do this, other then guestimating the whole backlog?

Thanks for any idea.

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    Can you consult with the head of the team that is going to work on the product? If so, the head can make good estimations for you.
    – superM
    Commented Jul 5, 2012 at 18:01
  • I can do so, though the below suggestion of having all team estimating the items looks more realistic.
    – SyBer
    Commented Jul 8, 2012 at 6:43
  • I thought you had no chance of such a meeting because you said you were going to estimate all yourself )))
    – superM
    Commented Jul 8, 2012 at 7:02
  • I might have not been very clear - I'm responsible to provide this, but thanks heavens I can involve developers into this estimation. Doing it alone would be a suicide indeed :).
    – SyBer
    Commented Jul 8, 2012 at 11:10

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Last time I did something like this we got the whole team together and estimated the entire backlog. It's darned annoying, but I couldn't see any way around it.

It's all guesswork at that point, of course, because you don't even really know what you'll be doing by the end because you can guarantee that something is going to change. But it's the only way I know how to take a defensible guess at the end date.

If you can, implement the roadmap in your tracking system rather than as a list of dates on paper. That way you are emphasizing the ephemeral nature of the dates, to hopefully give your audience a better feel that these aren't 'written in stone' in any way.

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  • Thanks, this what I was afraid of, but unfortunately it indeed seems the only way to go.
    – SyBer
    Commented Jul 8, 2012 at 11:09

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