Building a Product Backlog

Getting your product backlog right is one of the most important things you can do to improve your ROI

What makes a good Product Backlog? It should be so detailed that we can estimate and prioritize the content – but not so detailed that we miss the overview. It should be sliced nicely for going into a Sprint Backlog – and still provide us with enough context so we can handle dependencies.

What is the best technique: Feature Lists, User Stories, Use Cases, or something else? And how do you know what is best for your project and organization? Through exercises and discussions we will experience what the different agile requirement techniques mean to communication, planning, and testability. For example: what is best for communication – Feature Lists or User Stories? Or: what makes the best input for testing – User Stories or Use Cases?

Knowing the tradeoffs and pitfalls will help you building the most effective Product Backlog for your project.

Outline

• • Product Backlog Form:

    • • Feature Lists

      • User Stories

      • Use Cases

  • Related Subjects

    • • User roles

      • Why is a user story not a story?

      • Non-functional requirements – where do they fit?

  • Consequences for:

    • • Prioritization

      • Estimation

      • Planning

      • Testability