Coach’s Corner
Sprints are about creating useful increments, not about gathering requirements. Scrum teams should start building the product as soon as possible, not spend their time building their product backlog. But what should they build first? Ordering, as we discussed in the previous section, helps the development team and stakeholders understand which tasks will be performed in what order.
More specifically, the product owner orders the product backlog in a way that maximizes the value of the work that the development team does during the sprint. As a Scrum master, you need to help facilitate this value-centered ordering, especially if your product owner is currently using a priority scheme to sort the product backlog. Here’s a liberating structure called Min-Spec[13] that you can use to help your PO identify the most valuable product backlog items. Invite stakeholders, development team members, customers, people in leadership roles in your organization, and others who are interested in the outcome of the product or project.
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Have the participants form groups of 4-7 people, and provide them with materials for rapidly capturing ideas, tools such as markers and sticky notes, and space to post the ideas (either on a wall or flip chart).
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Display the current product backlog so that everyone can see it, and then pose this question: “Which features in our product backlog are needed in order to have a successful product release?”
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Ask each person to write down (one per sticky note) as many must-do product backlog items and must-not-do product backlog items as they can in 2-3 minutes. When time’s up, ask the groups to consolidate their individual lists, eliminating duplicates. At this point, each group’s list of must-do PBIs will likely be quite large.
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Have the groups aggressively test all the items on their must-do lists by answering this question about each item: “If we delivered all of our must-do PBIs except this one, would we still have a successful product release?” If the answer is “yes,” then the group has to delete that PBI from their must-do list. Encourage the teams to be ruthless when answering this question. This step can take around 15-20 minutes, depending on the size of lists. Allow more time as needed.
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Have the groups compare their work. Ask each group to spend a few minutes sharing their whittled-down, must-do PBI list with everyone, and have them discuss the trade-offs and decisions they made to get to their current list.
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After each group has presented their lists, have everyone work together to consolidate their lists into one master must-do PBI list that is as short as possible.
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Have everyone discuss the master list and work together to help the PO order these vital PBIs.
Ryan and Todd work with a lot of product owners who are struggling to order their product backlogs. Sometimes the sheer volume of PBIs makes it difficult for the PO to know where to begin. That’s why Min-Spec is such a powerful exercise: The outcome is a list of essential product backlog items that will lead to a successful product release. The product owner can use this list to focus on what truly creates value, and order the work in a way that maximizes the development team’s efforts.
Speaking of development team, it’s time to explore anti-patterns that cause dev teams to struggle. Correcting these bad practices will help you deliver more (and better) product increments, have happier customers, and ensure that your development team is engaged and productive.