Backlog prioritization is a key part of agile product improvement. Nonetheless, it might get overwhelming when there are a number of stakeholders: All of them make requests unbiased of each other and asynchronously, whereas the product supervisor spends lengthy hours in one-on-one conferences, negotiating with them over what objects will make it into the subsequent dash. The result’s usually wasted time and sources.
To bridge this division and save time, the most effective answer is a prioritization workshop that permits them to return to a consensus on the relative precedence of their requests. On this intensive session, all of the stakeholders can work collectively to agree on a plan that charts the trail ahead.
The Downside
Let’s think about a standard situation. An organization’s product crew discovered itself in a problematic state of affairs with the corporate’s flagship product. The event crew and the architects had set a difficult purpose to maneuver the product to a cloud-based platform. Nonetheless, progress was very sluggish as a result of builders have been busy with product function enhancements and bug fixes. There was an excessive amount of technical debt to pay down, which stifled the crew’s capability to make enhancements and proceed with their deliberate sprints. On the similar time, the stakeholders, who have been all account managers and labored instantly with finish customers, continued to request function enhancements to fulfill the shoppers they represented. Though stakeholders have been conscious that the event crew pulled objects from the backlog solely once they turned accessible, stakeholders nonetheless felt deserted and ignored. Lead time was excessive for any request that was not an emergency, and firefighting was all too frequent. On prime of that, stakeholders’ requests often have been in battle.
Stakeholders have been sad and felt like their requests largely went right into a black gap. Their prospects have been pissed off with how lengthy it took to handle easy bug stories and for his or her requested enhancements to be delivered. Consequently, the event crew felt prefer it was being pulled in lots of instructions and easily couldn’t make the technical enhancements to allow a sooner cycle and lead time to maintain up with stakeholder and consumer wants. The event crew wanted course about the place to focus its power, the way to stability tech debt towards new requests, and the way to prioritize the work.
The product proprietor determined to place everybody in a single room and see what occurred.
Promoting the Workshop to Stakeholders
Step one is to achieve buy-in from the stakeholders. On this case, the product proprietor approached the stakeholders’ supervisor and defined the advantages of the proposed workshop. He communicated that the purpose was to prioritize the backlog objects in an order that every one stakeholders might agree upon. These have been the promoting factors:
- Saving time
- Driving collaboration
- Aligning communication so that everybody hears the identical info and leaves with a standard understanding of what the event crew will ship subsequent
- Giving stakeholders a discussion board the place they’ll communicate and be heard
Offering stakeholders with a structured, facilitated discussion board by which they’ll specific their wants and align with each other empowers them and offers them a greater understanding of the whole lot of what goes into constructing an important product. In my very own work, I discovered that my stakeholders have been way more more likely to notify me of a request, present particulars, and reply my questions after I hosted a number of product backlog prioritization workshops.
The right way to Run a Workshop
The workshop’s capability to realize its aims is closely influenced by who’s within the room. Be sure to invite all related consultants:
- Key stakeholders of the product: account managers, account director, customer support supervisor, and so on.
- Product supervisor (or product proprietor)
- Scrum grasp
- Material consultants
Be sure you ship out an in depth agenda forward of time explaining what will probably be mentioned and when. This may present the stakeholders with a possibility to ask questions or make ideas beforehand and hold everybody centered through the assembly.
The right way to Put together the Room
Earlier than the members arrive, put together the assembly room in order that members can dive proper into the workshop workout routines. First, you’ll have to current the product backlog objects on the wall—print out the backlog objects or write them down on index playing cards.
These playing cards characterize the options and enhancements that your crew plans to implement within the close to future. Tape them on the assembly room’s wall and prepare them within the present backlog order—from highest precedence at one finish to the bottom precedence on the different. Be ready to show extra detailed request descriptions and extra particulars on the projector or TV display.
Roles of Contributors
The product supervisor is the primary facilitator for the workout routines, monitoring the time and guiding prioritization by offering context from the product imaginative and prescient. Product managers ought to keep away from getting concerned within the discussions and let the stakeholders drive the priority-setting. After the stakeholders agree upon a choice, a product supervisor can nonetheless transfer backlog objects as wanted to accommodate different priorities that come up over time. Product managers retain their decision-making energy over the backlog, however this train helps them to assemble info to make future precedence selections.
If a scrum grasp attends the workshop, ask them to notice members’ suggestions on the train itself when you are facilitating the occasion—will probably be useful for future enhancements. Material consultants take part within the workshop to offer context and extra info for stakeholders.
The right way to Facilitate Prioritization
Prioritization will be dealt with in two levels.
Within the first prioritizing stage, encourage the members to resolve what objects should not crucial. Placing the low-priority objects apart will permit the group to spend its useful time on higher-priority objects. If there’s nonetheless no consensus, a product supervisor ought to recommend setting the merchandise apart for a extra in-depth dialogue.
Throughout the second prioritizing stage, an important technique for serving to folks attain an settlement is to make the most of the Effort Affect Matrix—a easy but highly effective device for facilitating a bunch dialog that clarifies priorities. Objects that require the bottom effort for the best influence rise to the highest of the record, and objects that require better effort however can have a decrease influence sink to the underside. You’ll find a number of variations of this system and the way to enhance it.
If stakeholders hold transferring a backlog merchandise forwards and backwards with no consensus, the product supervisor ought to have the ultimate say on its precedence.
Earlier than closing the assembly, the product supervisor ought to test in with the members and ask for his or her ultimate ideas. After they go away, be sure to quantity or code the agreed-upon requests so that you could simply switch them to the product administration product backlog device—begin with one as the best precedence.
Repeatedly Enhance the Workshop
The product backlog workshop needs to be a daily assembly in your Scrum cycle, and it might match right into a Kanban crew’s ceremonies. If you happen to can conduct this train mid-sprint in a Scrum cycle, you’ll obtain stakeholders’ priorities forward of dash planning. For a Kanban crew, the workshop could possibly be performed weekly or in no matter cadence is finest to realign a roadmap to prioritize the Kanban record.
For my crew, having a prioritization workshop each three weeks was ample to refresh the backlog’s priorities. Discovering the suitable cadence is crucial for the workshop’s success—be sure to discover the effective line between members’ wants and precise demand. Examine in often with members about whether or not the present frequency meets their wants.
Additionally, create a channel for members to offer suggestions on the workshop. Having a devoted individual to take notes about future enhancements to the workshop is useful—a scrum grasp can fill this position completely. Doc the workshop’s enhancements to point out your dedication to attaining a smoother expertise.
Recurrently using a devoted workshop for backlog prioritization can profit an organization on a number of totally different ranges. Product managers can use their time and sources extra successfully and effectively. The corporate will be extra agile and obtain higher outcomes sooner. Asking stakeholders to take part early on will be an extremely highly effective device to achieve their help for product initiatives and get useful suggestions. Executives might additionally use this workshop to judge priorities on a tactical and strategic stage with a view to advance workers’ alignment with the corporate’s objectives, crew processes, and total communication.
Understanding the fundamentals
The distinction between a product backlog and a dash backlog is the urgency of their implementation: The dash backlog is utilized by the Scrum crew to develop probably the most pressing objects within the upcoming dash(s), whereas the product backlog is a long-term grasp record of options, a few of which could by no means attain the implementation stage.
A product backlog is essential as a result of it lays out all of the product’s potential options in a single place so the event crew can see them; it will also be used to set the expectations of product stakeholders.
The product supervisor is answerable for creating, prioritizing, and sustaining a product backlog. Requests for backlog objects come from varied sources: gross sales, the QA crew, buyer help, and product stakeholders.
A product supervisor prioritizes the backlog and defines product course. There are lots of sources for backlog requests, however usually, they arrive from product stakeholders. Product managers must discover a consensus amongst stakeholders with typically conflicting requests, and a backlog prioritization workshop is one of the best ways to do it.
An excellent product backlog is a well-prioritized plan that converts a high-level imaginative and prescient into the working particulars of making a product.
