Product Backlog
Description
- The one and only list of things that the team should work on.
- The Product Owner continuously works to keep the backlog up-to-date, refining it and aligning it with stakeholders and the team.
- Product backlog describes Why (usually Stories) and What (Acceptance Criteria and Definition of Done), not How (this is defined during the Sprint Planning in the Sprint Backlog).
- No work can be added to the team without passing the Product Backlog.
- The Product owner takes input from stakeholders and the team to prioritize the list. The list can be ordered based on different criteras: e.g Value, Time criticality, Risk or all (Weighted shortest job first)
Material needed
Somewhere to manage the Product Backlog: E.g Post-its, Excel, digital whiteboard, Jira, Azure dev-ops
Preparation
When starting a new team, it takes time to create the initial backlog. This can be done in advance or during a Sprint Zero.
Implementation
Input
Customer requirements, Stakeholder requirements, Risks, Enablers, High level plan
Product owner responsibilities
- Explains why
- Assess business value
- Align with stakeholders
Scrum master responsibilities
- Support P.O
- Coach stakeholders
Developer responsibilities
- Make estimates (sizing)
- Suggest Definition of Done
Characteristics
Ordered, Refined (prioritized items), Understandable, One list, Items doable in one Sprint (when refined)
Tips
- Focus on the Why. One common mistake is to focus on how to do things and estimating them. The product backlog is not a traditional work-breakdown-structure, but a tool to create alignment and understanding across the whole organisation. To leave the How to the Developers, builds motivation and empowerment.
- Its tricky to find the right level for the Acceptance Criteria. They should be crisp enough so that the Scrum team understands what needs to be done, but not so detailed that they define the full solution of the problem.
- Refining the why (e.g a User story, but not an Acceptance Criteria) and the prioritization is often befinicial to do before the sprint planning. The Product owner and the relevant stakeholders align on the key items to work on in the near future.
