Product Backlog

Scrum-based exercise to help product owners gain an understanding of the Product Backlog, along with their role in managing it.

This exercise is intended to train product owners in prioritising a list of user stories into a backlog of work to be done. This exercise should be completed with two or more people. One person should be designated as the Product Owner while the others will be stakeholders. As the group reviews the stories, the Product Owner accepts input from the stakeholders but retains authority to decide on final prioritisation.

Required material

• Project-tracking technology of your choice (sticky notes, Trello etc.)

• User stories developed during Definiton Workshop

• White board (if using sticky notes)

Workflow

1. Add story points to your user stories

Create two columns on a white board: New and Backlog.

Review your user stories from the last workshop and add story points to each story. Story points are relative numbers that reflect the effort required for the Dev Team to complete the story. Ask one of the mentors for guidance if you have difficulties estimating the story points.

Once you've added story points to a story, place it into the New column.

2. Prioritise the backlog

Now, review all of the stories in the New column and determine their rank relative to one another. When ranking, you may cluster related stories near one another. However, it is important to ensure you provide a breadth of features as the product is being built.

As you review the stories, drag them from the New column to Backlog, placing them in the priority order of your choosing. Throughout this process, you may reshuffle the order or have a discussion about the relative importance of one feature versus another. This is a vital part of the backlog prioritization process. Once all of the user stories in the New column have been moved over to the Backlog column, you are done with this task!

3. Scope a sprint

Create a third column on the white board, called In Progress. At the top of the In Progress column, write the number 34. This number is your sprint team’s average velocity, i.e. the number of story points they can work on during a sprint.

Review the stories in your backlog and place 34 points worth of stories into the In Progress column. You may have to place a lower priority story into the sprint so that you can reach 34 points. Do not go over 34 points. You have just planned for an upcoming sprint!

4. Refine and scope next sprint

Fast forward a few weeks. Pretend your team is about to complete their sprint, and **it is time to start planning your next sprint!

Since your initial backlog prioritization meeting, a handful of new features have been suggested by the team and stakeholders. Add some more user stories to the New column.

Then review the stories from the New column and place them into priority order along with the other stories in the Backlog column. As you add the new stories to the Backlog column, feel free to reprioritize the Backlog column as necessary. It has been a few weeks — the features you and your stakeholders desire may have changed!

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