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https://dzone.com/articles/product-backlogs-practice
Years ago I went to college on the Isle of Skye, off the west coast of Scotland. I learned about Tr na dochuimhne
and other such mystical places of Gaelic culture. These days my perception of the Lands of Forgetfulness is
driven not by any loch-mist that streams through the hills to the isles, but by the forsaken backlogs I find on Scrum
boards. All too often the user stories that are put on a product backlog never make it to reality. All through an
entire project they can sit there, these creatures of whimsy, half-reminding a team of something
which should have been done, or which might have been done, if only they had time to get round to it, or
which could have been looked into, but never was. Each was put there for a reason that the team may not even
remember any more. Perhaps they never really knew why. "Anyway", they tell me, "there have always been other
more important things to be getting on with". The Product Backlog is the land of forgotten dreams.
like Scrum, a portion of those requirements are taken at regular intervals and worked on by the developers who
will then produce something of value. Each interval is known as a Sprint, and the portion of requirements to be
actioned in a particular Sprint is called the Sprint Backlog. The Product Backlog is the set of requirements for the
entire project. The responsibility for managing it lies wholly with the Product Owner, although he or she must
negotiate each Sprint Backlog with the development team. Since the Product Backlog contains requirements of a
given size, and each Sprint Backlog contains some of those requirements which are of a given size, the rate of a
project's progress can be measured.
However, a Product Backlog is never complete because scope and priorities are always in some degree of flux.
That's just fine though. We know that requirements change all the time, but by keeping a Product Backlog
updated we can embrace that change instead of fearing it. With a known rate of progress the impact of such
scope changes on the estimated date of project completion can be foreseen, and stakeholders can modify their
plans and techniques accordingly. These three legs of transparency, inspection, and adaptation underpin an agile
way of working.
3. Collaboration with other teams. Projects rarely exist in isolation, and are more typically components
within a larger portfolio of changes that reflect an organization's strategic goals. Product Backlogs can
therefore be highly interdependent at a portfolio level. This means that teams will need to collaborate with
each other, both directly and through their respective Product Owners, to make sure that release trains are
synchronized and in accordance with compatible Definitions of Done. Failure to collaborate in this way can
lead to the disintegration of Product Backlogs that no longer reflect the intended strategic direction.
Conclusion
A Product Backlog is far more than just an ordered list. There are a range of behaviors that must come together
for one to be effective. These include clear product ownership, a team commitment to review and estimate, and
ongoing collaboration with the wider enterprise. A Product Backlog will not manage itself. It must be subjected to
diligent curation if it is to avoid the journey into the land of forgotten dreams.