Product Backlog
The Product Backlog is a collection of tasks that are required for a software project. These tasks originate with the stakeholders. When coming up with an idea for the software project, stakeholders create a number of requests for features. Even after development has begun, stakeholders can continue to submit requests to the backlog.
After stakeholders submit their requests, responsibility falls on the Product Owner. Perhaps the biggest responsibility of the Product Owner is knowing when to say “no.” Stakeholders are encouraged to put in requests for anything they might want to see in a software project. However, not all of these requests would benefit the project. Some would be far more effort than what the feature would be worth. Others might even be actively bad for the product, perhaps introducing lag or adding unnecessary bulk. The Product Owner must have an intuition for what most benefits the customer and adds value to the product. Beyond their own intuition, the Product Owner must interface with the customer to know what they really want, and with the Scrum Master and Scrum team to know what is feasible. Only valuable and possible requests make it into the Product Backlog.
In addition to being able to reject feature requests, the Product Owner must prioritize requests in the Product Backlog. Traditional development environments are frequently bombarded with requests of equal priority. Upper management often wants everything done at once, so developers aren’t sure what to work on first. Agile avoids this with prioritization. The Product Owner organizes every request such that the most valuable ones are worked on first. This means that stakeholders get the important stuff near the beginning, and get less important details and additions later on.
Recommended Further Reading
The following materials may assist you in order to get the most out of this course: