Signs That A Planning Meeting Isn't Going Well

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  • Lots of churn - talking about scenarios that have not already been considered; there is a feeling that every scenario, regardless of how unlikely one may be, must be given consideration
  • Adding features and getting SWAGs
  • Losing focus - frequent digressions, squirrels, going down sidetracks, etc.
  • Paralysis - everything requires consensus; no one makes a decision; all points of view have equal weight/value
  • Trying to put 10 lbs of sand into a 5-lb bag.  There are too many items, so instead of reviewing a prioritized list of features with estimates, the group looks at the entire product backlog and arbitrarily manipulates scope, efforts, resources, etc. to create the predetermined release scenario
  • People other than SW devs and SQE design technical solutions and estimate effort for their contrived solutions (e.g., "it shouldn't be hard to . . . . "; "it would be easy just to . . . ")

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