The Product Backlog is an emergent, ordered list of what is needed to improve the product. It is the single source of work undertaken by the agile team. Unfortunately, ordering Product Backlog items by their “priority” leads to suboptimal market value and reduced return on investment.
The Product Owner needs to consider the entire backlog when ordering Product Backlog items, to optimise value.
The Product Backlog contains all of the work for the team. When there is no Product Backlog, or if it is poorly managed:
Product Owners aren't "Agile Business Analysts". Their role doesn't encompass elicitihng requirements for the team to work on. Its strategic focus requires the Product Owner to be proactive in translating the strategic outcomes of the product into a roadmap that decomposes into a single list of work for the team. While the Product Owner is accountable for making this happen, they don't necesarily have to do all the work themselves. This is why the Product Owner is part of the Scrum Team.
When there are multiple lists of work, the team lacks focus. At no point in time can anyone, including stakeholders, be clear about what work the team will do next.
Impact: Lack of focus.
What to do: The Product Owner should organise all the work into ONE list with the help of the rest of the team.
When there is only a Sprint or two worth of items in the Produc Backlog, the team becomes very reactive regarding stakeholder needs. Managers begin to look for work for the team to be busy without consideration of whether that work is of value.
Impact:Team turns into a 'feature farm'. Team is highly reactive.
What to do: Use the Product Goal to determine what work is of value. The Product Owner should work aggressively to understand the future roadmap of work, product objectives, and turn it into the Product Backlog.
To prioritise a list means to order its items by their importance relative to each other.
Unfortunately, priorities drive pair-wise comparisons (by English language definition) of items on the list. Think of using bubble sort to prioritise the Product Backlog: compare the top two items and interchange them if they’re in the wrong order, and then move on to the next pair, and keep cycling through the list until everything is in its place. Prioritisation and sorting go hand in hand. All the comparisons are local. This process is analogous to local optimisation.
The focus on ordering (over "prioritisation") underscores the active role that the Product Owner continuously has to play in the ordering and reordering, of the work in a manner that maximises value.
Barry Overeem, Professional Scrum Trainer (PST)
The ordering of the Product Backlog should be done in such a way so that it delivers against the commitment of the Product Goal.
The Product Backlog should emerge to define what will fulfil the Product Goal.
The focus on ordering (over "prioritisation") underscores the active role that the Product Owner continuously has to play in the ordering and reordering, of the work in a manner that maximises value ... A product is a vehicle to deliver value. It has a clear boundary, known stakeholders, well-defined users or customers. A product could be a service, a physical product, or something more abstract.
Jeff Sutherland & Ken Schwaber
The Product Owner is accountable for managing the Product Backlog and its order, not a committee.
The Product Backlog should be continually refined and re-ordered over time as the Product Owner learns more about what customers value, what stakeholders need, and what the market says it needs.
The Product Backlog should never be static. Everyone should be able to contribute to the backlog, but the Product Owner is still accountable for optimising its order for value.
An agile team's ability to respond to change depends on how well the whole team understands its product reflected in the items in the Product Backlog.
Put aside 10% of the capacity of the team for Backlog Management activities.
In a Backlog Management session:
Ensure the remaining items also go into the Product Backlog. They should be in a general ranked order of value, knowing that as more is known about these items they will get re-sorted in the near future.
A Scrum Master's role is to coach the Product Owner on good techniques for agile product management, including how to manage the Product Backlog. This doesn't mean the Scrum Master manages the list like a Delivery Manager. Instead, they coach the Product Owner to do this themselves, help the team to help the Product Owner, and facilitate workshops that engage stakeholders to help the Product Owner.
1. Overeem, B. (2017) Myth 5: In Scrum, the Product Backlog is prioritized.
2. Schwaber, K., & Sutherland, J. (2020) The Scrum Guide. The Definitive Guide to Scrum: The Rules of the Game.
3. Reinertsen, Donald (2009). The Principles of Product Development Flow. ISBN 1-935401-00-9.
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