Article: Continuous planning: an important aspect of agile and lean development Journal: International Journal of Agile Systems and Management (IJASM) 2015 Vol.8 No.2 pp.132 - 162 Abstract: Continuous planning is a relatively new and not yet fully studied field of research, especially from the perspective of agile and lean development organisations. To augment the knowledge in this field, this article presents both a literature review and empirical findings from three case studies that reveal how companies conduct continuous planning. The results indicate that continuous planning is not commonly adopted and applied throughout these organisations and that it currently involves only a certain kind of planning (e.g., release planning). The results of this study bring to light that the main elements of continuous planning (i.e., organisational, strategic and business planning) are tightly related to each other and thus should be considered when companies seek to improve their planning processes and practices. The importance of continuous planning will only increase dramatically in turbulent business environments that include ever shorter planning cycles and the need to improve transparency and knowledge-sharing in organisations. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Continuous planning: an important aspect of agile and lean development

Authors: Tanja Suomalainen; Raija Kuusela; Maarit Tihinen

Addresses: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Kaitoväylä 1, P.O. Box 1100, FI-90571 Oulu, Finland ' VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Kaitoväylä 1, P.O. Box 1100, FI-90571 Oulu, Finland ' VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland Ltd, Kaitoväylä 1, P.O. Box 1100, FI-90571 Oulu, Finland

Abstract: Continuous planning is a relatively new and not yet fully studied field of research, especially from the perspective of agile and lean development organisations. To augment the knowledge in this field, this article presents both a literature review and empirical findings from three case studies that reveal how companies conduct continuous planning. The results indicate that continuous planning is not commonly adopted and applied throughout these organisations and that it currently involves only a certain kind of planning (e.g., release planning). The results of this study bring to light that the main elements of continuous planning (i.e., organisational, strategic and business planning) are tightly related to each other and thus should be considered when companies seek to improve their planning processes and practices. The importance of continuous planning will only increase dramatically in turbulent business environments that include ever shorter planning cycles and the need to improve transparency and knowledge-sharing in organisations.

Keywords: continuous planning; strategic planning; business planning; roadmapping; agile development; lean development; leagile; agility; software development; organisational planning; transparency; knowledge sharing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJASM.2015.070607

International Journal of Agile Systems and Management, 2015 Vol.8 No.2, pp.132 - 162

Received: 10 Oct 2014
Accepted: 13 Mar 2015
Published online: 13 Jul 2015 *

Title: Continuous planning: an important aspect of agile and lean development

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