Release Planning Meeting Templates for Agile Success

Access customizable templates for Release Planning meetings to align stakeholders, set priorities, and plan for multiple sprints

min read

Release Planning meetings are strategic agile events that occur at the start of each release cycle. They focus on aligning stakeholders, prioritizing features, and creating a high-level plan for the upcoming release. Unlike Sprint Planning, which deals with short-term, tactical goals for a single iteration, Release Planning takes a broader view, typically covering multiple sprints. These meetings, whether conducted as Big Room Planning or team-specific sessions, enhance communication and create a shared vision for delivering value efficiently.

Here are some key things to keep in mind while having a successful Release Planning meeting

  1. Stakeholder alignment: Gathering input from product owners, developers, and business representatives
  2. Goal setting and feature prioritization: Defining release objectives and deciding on key features
  3. Capacity planning: Estimating team velocity for the release duration
  4. Risk assessment and mitigation strategies
  5. Dependencies mapping across teams and systems
  6. Timeline creation with key milestones
  7. Differentiation from Sprint Planning: Focuses on long-term goals vs. short-term sprint tasks

We’ve put together a retrospective meeting template based on these key nuances; feel free to duplicate it and make it your own. View and duplicate the Release planning meeting template.

Effective Release Planning meetings are crucial for balancing ambitious goals with realistic expectations in agile projects. They provide a framework for teams to adapt to changing priorities and market conditions across multiple sprints. By regularly revisiting the release plan, teams can ensure they're delivering high-quality products that meet customer needs. While Sprint Planning deals with immediate, tactical concerns, Release Planning sets the strategic direction, enabling teams to navigate complex projects and deliver consistent value over time.

How VCA helps with meeting agendas?

We understand that meetings are the lifeblood of teams today, building more content and context with each decision. Unfortunately, the right content is either not captured accurately, siloed, or both.

That’s why we are building the Video Calling App - it helps product and engineering teams capture meeting context, automate tasks, and focus on high-impact work.

VCA’s native AI allows you to seamlessly search through past meetings, Linear, and Github. You can easily manage action items through integrations, create tasks with just one click, and add updates on Linear, Jira, or other project management tools directly from your discussions. Moreover, you can block time for them and GitHub PRs to effectively plan your day.

We are still in the early stages and rolling out access every day. If that sounds interesting, join the waitlist or fill out this form, and we’ll be in touch super soon.

Meeting Details

  • Date: [Insert Date]
  • Time: [Insert Time]
  • Facilitator: [Insert Name]
  • Participants: [List Names and Roles]
  • Location/Platform: https://videocalling.app

Agenda

  1. Review of Previous Release
    • Key achievements
    • Lessons learned
  2. Product Vision and Roadmap Update
    • Product Owner presents overall vision
    • Any changes to long-term roadmap
  3. Release Goals and Objectives
    • Define SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) goals for the upcoming release
    • Align with business objectives
  4. Feature Prioritization
    • Review proposed features/epics
    • Prioritize using agreed method (e.g., MoSCoW, relative weighting)
  5. Capacity Planning
    • Team velocity review
    • Resource availability
    • Initial capacity allocation
  6. Risk Assessment
    • Identify potential risks
    • Discuss mitigation strategies
  7. Dependency Mapping
    • Inter-team dependencies
    • External dependencies
  8. Release Timeline
    • Key milestones
    • High-level sprint plan
  9. Next Steps and Action Items
    • Recap decisions
    • Assign action items

Post-Meeting Tasks

       [ ] Distribute meeting minutes
       [ ] Update release backlog
       [ ] Communicate release plan to wider organization
       [ ] Schedule any necessary follow-up meetings

Introducing
Fundamentally better way to meet, focus and ship faster

Video Calling App puts all the best practices you just read into action. With VCA, product and engineering teams can capture meeting context, automate workflows, and keep everyone focused only on high-impact work.

Thank you! We will keep you updated.
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.