Tag: Backlog Refinement

Allan Kelly: Honey, I Shrunk the Backlog — Hands-on Agile 44

TL; DR: HoA #44: Honey, I Shrunk the Backlog w/ Allan Kelly

In this energizing 44th Hands-on Agile session on product backlog management, Allan Kelly clarified one thing: The backlog was a great idea until it wasn’t. Many successful teams deliver backlog items daily, but their backlogs aren’t getting smaller. The never-ending backlog overshadows delivery success. Product discovery, dual-track agile, OKRs, etc., make it worse by accelerating backlog growth without taking any of the rotting items away.

Learn more about Allan’s remedy for oversized product backlogs in less than an hour.

???? Watch the video now: Allan Kelly: Honey, I Shrunk the Backlog — Hands-on Agile 44.

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October 3, 2022
The Product Backlog: 14 First Principles to Help Your Scrum Team Succeed

TL; DR: Product Backlog Principles

Contrary to popular belief, the Product Owner does not have dictatorial powers regarding the composition and order of the Product Backlog. Instead, Scrum as a framework is based on a delicate system of checks and balances, collaboration, and joint decision-making to mitigate risk; for example, the Product Owner falling in love with their solution over the problem of the customers. Learn more about critical Product Backlog principles, from the size and growth of the Product Backlog to whether a Product Backlog is necessary in the first place. (Some lean practitioners dispute its existence is justified.)

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September 12, 2022
27 Product Backlog Anti-Patterns

TL; DR: 27 Product Backlog and Refinement Anti-Patterns

Scrum is a tactical framework to build products, provided you identify what is worth making in advance. But even after a successful product discovery phase, you may struggle to create the right thing in the right way if your Product Backlog is not up to the job—garbage in, garbage out. The following article points to 27 common Product Backlog anti-patterns – including the Product Backlog refinement process – limiting your Scrum team’s success.

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April 9, 2022
Liberating Structures for Scrum (3): The Product Backlog

TL;DR: The Liberating Structures Product Backlog Meetup

The fourth Liberating Structures for Scrum meetup addressed the Product Backlog, more precisely the issues with Product Backlogs that subsequently cause Sprint Plannings to fail and Scrum Teams to deliver below their capabilities; as the saying goes: garbage in, garbage out.

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July 26, 2019