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Plan and prioritise · Core

Turn the roadmap into a delivery plan

A delivery plan shows how the first release will actually get built: the order of work, the milestones, who is needed and what could get in the way. It turns intentions into commitments the team believes in.

About 1-3 daysEvergreenLast reviewed 5 November 2026

Who this applies to

Skills it builds
Delivery and executionPrioritisation and roadmapping
PM types
All
Product types
All
Starting points
All
Ways of working
All
Experience
All
Size of organisation
All

Steps, by experience

Beginner (under 1 year)

  1. Start from the ordered backlog for the first release. Ask the team to size the epics roughly, for example small, medium or large.
  2. Group the work into a few milestones, each one something you could demonstrate, such as 'a user can sign up' or 'payments work end to end'.
  3. Check the team's real capacity: holidays, other commitments and support work. Plan for about 70 to 80 percent of their time, not 100.
  4. List dependencies on other teams, suppliers and approvals, and agree dates with them.
  5. Write down the top risks and what you will do if each one happens.
  6. Share a simple plan with ranges, such as 'June to July', rather than single dates, and agree how often you will update it.

Intermediate (1 to 4 years)

  1. Size epics with the team and group them into demonstrable milestones.
  2. Plan against real capacity and agree cross-team dependencies.
  3. Record risks with owners and mitigations.
  4. Publish a plan with date ranges and a regular update rhythm.

Experienced (5+ years)

  1. Use past team throughput, not optimism, to forecast, and show confidence levels.
  2. Sequence work to retire the biggest delivery risks first.
  3. Agree explicit trade-off rules with stakeholders: which of scope, date and quality moves first.
  4. Keep the plan live and re-forecast as soon as reality changes.

Who can do this

Owner: Product manager

Can be delegated to

  • Delivery Manager or Scrum Master: Build the plan, track capacity and manage dependencies
  • Tech Lead or Architect: Size the epics and identify technical risks

Reviewed by: Tech Lead, Delivery Manager

Tool examples

Jira
Use a timeline view to place epics against milestones and show dependencies between them.
Azure DevOps
Use delivery plans to see each team's work and dependencies on one timeline.
Linear
Set project target dates and milestones, and link blocking issues across teams.
Confluence
Keep a release planning page with the team, goals, non-goals, milestones and risks.

Definition of done

  • Milestones agreed and each one demonstrable
  • Plan based on real capacity, with dependencies agreed
  • Risks recorded with owners
  • Plan shared with date ranges and an update rhythm

Common pitfalls

  • Planning to 100 percent of the team's time
  • Giving single dates months ahead
  • Finding out about a dependency when it blocks the team

If you lead the team

What good looks like: Delivery plans show the order of work, milestones, owners and risks, and are kept up to date.

Ask your PM

  • What's the next milestone, and how confident are we?
  • What's the biggest risk to the date?

Warning signs

  • Plans are only revisited when a date slips.
  • Risks are known in the team but not shared upwards.

Do these first

Sources