The standard for project management

Figure 6-20. Relationship Between Product Vision, Release Planning, and Iteration Planning

Release 3

Release 2

Release 1

Release Plan

Iteration Plan

Iteration 0

Iteration 1

Iteration 2

Iteration 3

Iteration 

n

Feature D

(User Story 5)

Feature C

(User Story 4)

Feature B

(User Story 3)

Feature A

(User Story 2)

Feature A

(User Story 1)

5 Hours

8 Hours

4 Hours

12 Hours

Task A

Task B

Task C

Task D

Product vision

 drives

product roadmap

Product roadmap

drives 

release plans

Release plan

establishes 

the 

iterations

Iteration plans

schedules 

feature

development

Tasks

 (estimated in

hours) created to

deliver 

user stories

Prioritized 

features

delivered by 

user

stories

 (estimated

in 

story points

)

---

��

217

6.5.3 DEVELOP SCHEDULE: OUTPUTS

6.5.3.1 SCHEDULE BASELINE

A schedule baseline is the approved version of a schedule model that can be changed only through formal change 

control procedures and is used as a basis for comparison to actual results. It is accepted and approved by the appropriate 

stakeholders as the schedule baseline with baseline start dates and baseline finish dates. During monitoring and 

controlling, the approved baseline dates are compared to the actual start and finish dates to determine if variances have 

occurred. The schedule baseline is a component of the project management plan.

6.5.3.2 PROJECT SCHEDULE

The project schedule is an output of a schedule model that presents linked activities with planned dates, durations, 

milestones, and resources. At a minimum, the project schedule includes a planned start date and planned finish date 

for each activity. If resource planning is done at an early stage, the project schedule remains preliminary until resource 

assignments have been confirmed and scheduled start and finish dates are established. This process usually occurs no 

later than the completion of the project management plan (Section 4.2.3.1). A target project schedule model may also 

be developed with a defined target start and target finish for each activity. The project schedule may be presented in 

summary form, sometimes referred to as the master schedule or milestone schedule, or presented in detail. Although 

a project schedule model can be presented in tabular form, it is more often presented graphically, using one or more of 

the following formats:

u

u