21/36 : DEEP Product Backlog
21/36 : DEEP Product Backlog
A healthy product backlog is much like a healthy human: groomed, organised, and living in the open.
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What is a Product Backlog?
Product backlog is a prioritized list of deliverables (such as new features) that should be implemented as part of product development.
It's a decision-making artifact that helps you estimate, refine, and prioritize everything you might sometime in the future want to complete.
It helps ensure the team is working on the most important and valuable features, fixing the most important bugs, or doing other important work critical to product development.
The backlog, therefore, is tremendously useful in situations when you are unable to do everything being asked (so, most situations), or in contexts when even a small amount of planning will help a lot (so, in most contexts).
Many think of this backlog as a to-do list, and define it in exactly this way, as a list of things you must do to deliver your product to market.
In truth, it is not necessarily a to-do list. Think of it as a wish list.
Think of a product backlog as a wish list — not a to-do list.
Why is a Product Backlog important?
A product backlog is important due to the following reasons -
It is prepared in order to estimate each and every feature.
It would help in planning the roadmap of the product.
It would help in re-grading the features so that more value can be added to the product.
It would help in determining what to prioritize first. Team would rank the item and them build value.
Characteristics -
Each product must have one product backlog which would contain set of large to exceptionally large functionalities.
Multiple teams would work on a single product backlog.
Features would be ranked based on the business value, technical value, risk management or strategic fitness.
Highest ranked items would be broken down into smaller stories during release planning so that they can be completed with future iterations.
DEEP Product Backlog?
DEEP identifies four key attributes of a high-functioning product backlog. It’s a simple tool that product owners or product managers can use to manage the product backlog and user stories effectively.
First coined by Roman Pichler and Mike Cohn, DEEP is simple, easy to remember, and can be done quickly. The acronym stands for: Detailed appropriately, estimated, emergent, and prioritized.
Detailed Appropriately. User stories on the product backlog that will be done soon need to be sufficiently well understood that they can be completed in the coming sprint. Stories that will not be developed for a while should be described in less detail.
Estimated. The product backlog is more than a list of all work to be done; it is also a useful planning tool. Because items further down the backlog are not as well understood (yet), the estimates associated with them will be less precise than estimates given items at the top.
Emergent. A product backlog is not static. It will change over time. As more is learned, user stories on the product backlog will be added, removed, or reprioritized.
Prioritized. The product backlog should be sorted with the most valuable items at the top and the least valuable at the bottom. By always working in priority order, the team is able to maximize the value of the product or system being developed.
Maintaining the product backlog is the primary responsibility of the product owner or product manager. Part of that process involves refining details and estimates and prioritizing items.
Obtaining a DEEP backlog is one of the key outcomes of a product backlog grooming or refinement session, which is a recurring event for agile product development teams. Regular backlog grooming sessions help ensure prioritizing the right stories and that the product backlog does not become a black hole.
How do you create a Product Backlog?
Product Manager creates a Product Backlog as the whole responsibility of the Product Backlog is on them. A common initiation to create a Product Backlog is by using spreadsheets. However, spreadsheets are not the ideal choice for organizing the Product Backlog as it is not designed for moving the rows and columns always. Hence, using the spreadsheet needs a tedious effort and an ample amount of time.
Split the Backlog Into Two Lists
Before creating a backlog, define its scope, whether it should apply to a product line, a group of products, or all of the company’s products—this will help you to manage the features.
I have learned across multiple projects that it is a healthy practice to split the backlog into two lists: long-term master backlog and short-term executable backlog (also called a sprint backlog as it can include one or more sprints). The idea is to focus on the most urgent items in order to develop them promptly while at the same time maintaining a big picture of all the features in the master backlog.
In the beginning, both backlogs start as a high-level list of features. However, a sprint backlog usually is split into epics and user stories for easy execution, while the long-term backlog remains as it is. As a product manager, you decide which items should be moved from one list to the other, and when.
These are some of the necessary steps that are required to create a Product Backlog.
Adding ideas to the Product Backlog The Product Backlog is nothing but a list of ideas that are brainstormed while creating the product. It contains all the statements that may be great or not-so-great, given by all the Scrum Team members and the customers and Stakeholders. Adding ideas after discussing with the customer about what kind of product they are looking for is one of the first steps in Product Development. Initially, only limited ideas could be added to the Product Backlog. Still, as the product is developed, new ideas could be added, keeping in mind the competition and market relevancy of the items added to the Product Backlog. Hence, the first step in creating a Product Backlog is adding all the types of ideas given by all the members and stakeholders.
Getting clarification Once any Stakeholder approaches change to any addition or fix the product, it is crucial to clarify the fix or addition. To understand the importance of the addition, the Product Owner and the Scrum Team must clarify three basic questions.
What is the reason behind the fix? This question answers what the problem is caused in the product and how it would help solve the specific issue or problem.
What value does it contribute to the product as a whole? Apart from the short-term benefit, the Scrum Team should also analyze whether the addition contributes to the whole product and enhances product quality. The addition should ideally increase the product's value by improving the business value and return of investment.
What is the specification of the item? The addition or fix must be thoroughly studied by the Developer to understand the exact feature added to the product. The item's specification must be clear to the Developer so that they do not face any impediments during their development process.
Prioritization Once the Product Backlog items are added to the Product Backlog, the Product Owner's responsibility is to prioritize the things from the highest priority to low priority. This step should be based on strategic analysis of data and not only the gut feeling of the Product Owner. Having a proper structure of the Product Backlog would enhance communication among the teams, Product Owners, and Stakeholders and help the Product Owner get its approval.
But on what basis would the Product Owner prioritize the backlog items? There are specific criteria based on which the items are prioritized. They are:
Revenue: Any item or feature that will generate a high income for the business should be kept a high priority. The articles should be prioritized based on the return on investment it could offer. A strategic and detailed analysis of the feature should be done to understand the revenue it may generate for the company.
Market uniqueness and market fix: If a feature is unique in the market, it gives more challenging competition to other products and would be highlighted in the market. Also, if the same quality could solve the users' existing problems, this feature is ensured to give a bang for the buck and increase the opportunity for the product in the market.
Complexity: The proposed feature should also be examined for the overall complexity and the time it may take to execute the product. The Scrum Team should analyze the shortest possible delivery time with the maximum value the product feature can bring. The team should also explore the other functions this feature can impact and also the hidden costs associated with the quality.
Update the Product Backlog regularly The Product Backlog should be treated as a living document; hence, it should be regularly updated by the Product Owner. The process of prioritization, refining, and keeping the Product Backlog up to date is an integral part of the development process. The Product Backlog will contain hundreds of ideas that have to be refined, and few ideas which may not seem relevant may be discarded. Eventually, the Product Backlog items are prioritized, and the items are arranged according to their priority. The Product Backlog item will first get listed as a high priority and then taken into the Sprint Backlog from which it is ultimately developed into a feature in the product.
Maintenance of Product Backlog As a new Sprint is planned, the team takes few Product Backlog items into the Sprint Backlog. The Sprint Backlog is the list of things which has to be developed during a particular Sprint. Both the Product Backlog and Sprint Backlog are updated so that any items that may not be useful can be removed. Here the team analyses whether any item whichever is not relevant can be eliminated so that newer ideas can be prioritized. After every Sprint planning is done, the list must be revised so that the higher priority items are arranged accordingly. Whichever items are completed, it should be labeled as done and archived under the master backlog.
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What's your take on the decade-old controversy of the backlog being an "idea wishlist" vs. a "short list of items actually planned to be build"?