The purpose of planning product releases is to divide the product development into packages of functionality. Releases can either be internal project releases setting milestones for a project or it can be external releases where packages of new functionality are shipped to customers.

The advantage of a release plan is that it gives different stakeholders an overview of when functionality is planned to be delivered and it allows a project team to focus on the near term release.

Deliverable:

• Release plan (multiple release)
• Plan for a single release

Key activities

• Establish and prioritize product backlog
• Create release plan  
• Create a plan for single release
• Monitor and update backlog and release plan on regular basis
• Communicate release plan

Additional comments

Considerations when creating a release plan and a plan for a specific release further reading

• What is the most valuable product features?
• How can early feedback on the product be obtained
• How can value be optimized given resource and time constraints?
• Are there risks to be addressed (e.g. by creating a feature early)? 
• Are there important dependencies between product features?
• Are there important areas for learning (e.g. by creating a feature early)?