Backlog Management Checklist

Naveed Ramzan

www.agile.org.pk | [email protected] | #AgilePK

● ITIL ® V3 Foundation Certified

● Working in Agile Environment since 2009

● Working as Open Source Developer in Multinational Company

● Provide services as Agile Coach in various IT Companies

● Playing Product Owner Role

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Talk’s Agenda
● Backlog Management Checklist

o Role

o Activities

o Responsibilities

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Roles
● Product Owner

● Scrum Master

● Team Members

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Role of Product Owner

Product
Owner

Client
Team

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Responsibilities of Product Owner
● Provide Vision

● Communication

● Motivate Team

● Maintain Backlog

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Responsibilities of Product Owner
● Continuous Backlog Grooming

● Define Releases

● Accept/Reject/Improve User Stories

● Honest Feedback

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Role of Scrum Master

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Role of Team Member
● Add Technical Steps to each story

● Add Complexity level to each story

● Add fair timeline to each story

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Major Activities

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Another Major Role in Backlog Management

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Client
● Who knows about the product more than Product Owner

● He knows his business objectives

● He defines the elements that create Value

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Issue with this role

Client just enters/sends few words of EPIC or user story

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Solution (PO to Client)
● All EPIC/User stories should be in pre-mature status by default

● Product Owner should do monthly or bi-monthly call with client

● Lead the meeting and discuss each EPIC/User story with client

● Add all discussion points in that EPIC/User Story

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Solution (PO to Team)
● Discuss each EPIC / User story with team

● Mature/Groom EPIC/User story (if needed) and update with all stuff/info

● Enter Fair Estimation and Priority

● Inform client about the User story priorities / dependencies and estimation

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How to engage Client in Backlog Management
Client Backlog Product Owner

Team

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Output
● Client will be happy that team understand the Business Value

● He will try to write groomed user stories

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Project Manager / Product Owner

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Best way to Manage Backlog
● Incident Management

● Problem Management

● Request Fulfilment ITIL ®

● Daily support tasks

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Handle Few Real time Scenarios

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Scenario 1
● Team have started sprint from 25-Mar to 05-Apr

● Client changed a small requirement in a user story ABC-012

● User story ABC-012 is in process in current Sprint

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Scenario 1
● Steps to do:

○ PO should check the team member working on user story ABC-012

○ PO should discuss with team member regarding Time estimation of updated requirement

○ Ask to remove user story of least priority from the sprint from that team member log

○ PO should keep balance with the requirement estimation hours and team working hours

○ PO should inform client, we are going to remove from current sprint a user story ABC-15 due
to this immediate change in user story ABC-012

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Scenario 2
● Team is going to start sprint 01-Apr to 10-Apr

● Client added a new user story ABC-045 with high priority

● User story ABC-045 need Research and implementation

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Scenario 2
● Steps to do:

○ PO should assess and discuss with team

○ PO should recommend to divide into 2 parts (Research and Implementation)

○ PO Should inform client that Research part will be included in sprint (01-Apr to 10-Apr)

○ Implementation part should in next sprint

○ In this way, it will be easy to handle user story, progressive, output will be in chunks

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Few tips to Manage Backlog to Sprints

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#1

Think Big and start with small

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#2

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#3

Add acceptance criteria

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#4
● Remove User Stories that no longer appear relevant

● Creating new User Stories in response to newly discovered needs

● Re-assessing the relative priority of stories

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#5

Every team member should do his own

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#6
● 75% of sprint time for new issues

● 15% of sprint time for Technical debates or Research

● 10% of sprint time for Bug Fixes of last sprint

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#7

Learn, how to Negotiate with Client !

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Your Turn

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Contact Me

[email protected]

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