Comments on: 10 Tips to Fully Leverage the Product Backlog

By: Roman Pichler

Roman Pichler — Wed, 05 Sep 2018 07:37:09 +0000

In reply to Tseten Gongya. Hi Tseten, Thank you for your feedback and question. When working with a backlog that is partially physical and partially electronic, I like to visualise epics, scenarios, workflow diagrams, sketches, and global non-functional requirements like robustness and interoperability on the wall using my Product Canvas template. I store the detailed, ready user stories in an electronic tool like JIRA or a spreadsheet. This makes the big picture visible and easily accessible and it allows conveniently sharing the items to be worked on in the next sprint. Does this approach work for you?

By: Tseten Gongya

Tseten Gongya — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 15:50:30 +0000

Hello Roman,

I am a big fan and find the resources in your blog very helpful. I’m dealing with the dilemma of how to incorporate a physical board along side the use of a digital tool for backlog tracking (as the business requires us to use one due to the nature of a particular project). I wondering, from your own experience, how you can best make this work without creating too much ‘overhead’ of tracking (either for the team, Scrum Master or PO) as the team should be focused on the actual work and not the tracking of it. That being said, the way they are currently using both is causing some confusion as team members might update one but not the other and vice versa.

Your feedback is appreciated!
Thanks

By: Roman Pichler

Roman Pichler — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 09:23:41 +0000

In reply to tushar.

Thanks Tushar. Glad to hear that you find the post helpful.

By: Roman Pichler

Roman Pichler — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 09:22:57 +0000

In reply to tushar.

Thanks for your feedback Tushar!

By: tushar

tushar — Wed, 28 Dec 2016 05:56:23 +0000

Hi, thank you for this post I agree with your point that Use a roadmap to sketch the overall journey you want to take your product on. State the upcoming major releases with their goals or benefits. very useful information

By: Roman Pichler

Roman Pichler — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 11:52:24 +0000

In reply to Kaya. Thanks for your comment Kaya. if you struggle with a long product backlog, the try the following: Limit it to the next major release or three months; keep the lower-priority items coarse-grained; say no to ideas and requirements that are not moving you closer to your release goal and/or vision. If you are interested in experimenting with structured product backlogs, take a look at my product canvas. Hope this helps!

By: Kaya

Kaya — Sat, 29 Oct 2016 11:34:48 +0000

What helps me the most in case of backlogs is the deep analysis of the tasks waiting – as you said, DEEP. Prioritising sounds obvious but is ommited very often.
I’m to try creating dimensions like described on here: http://kanbantool.com/blog/how-to-deal-with-an-ever-growing-backlog , what do you think about this method? Have you tried it?

By: Tommi Joentakanen

Tommi Joentakanen — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 09:14:40 +0000

Insanely valuable post. Thank you!

By: Andreas

Andreas — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:02:57 +0000

Hi Roman,

all good points! Some I already had in mind, others not yet. The one with vertical products will be really hard, I think. Ten years of component-focused development and product management will be hard to overcome. However, product portfolio management is what I miss most.

Thanks a lot!
Andreas

By: Andreas

Andreas — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 10:37:25 +0000

In my current situation, I have at least seven products in my backlog. There is a mix of customer-facing products and software components that are required to make the rest work. Hence, maintenance stories exist along with product features, customer requests and bugs. Unfortunately, I act more as a proxy PO since we have product managers for most of the products . However, I am also missing roadmaps that I could use as input for product-based backlogs. I am seriously thinking to switch to Kanban for the maintenance team and use Scrum for roadmap-based product dev only.

If you have any advise, that would be great!

Thanks for sharing your know-how anyway!
Andreas