Agile Experts on the Backlog

June 18, 2009

Based on an earlier discussion of the vitality of the product backlog (according to Dave West, the author of the original article, it’s important, really important), numerous conversations have popped up on user groups and beyond. Best of all, it seems everyone who has chimed in has a slightly different opinion. In the face of so little consensus, InfoQ decided to back up and go straight to the experts with a set of questions about the backlog. After assembling a “virtual panel” that included such agile heavyweights as Mary Poppendieck, Ron Jeffries, Jeff Patton, David West, Steve Freeman, and Jason Yip, InfoQ threw the following five questions at them:

  1. What is the purpose of a backlog in your opinion?
  2. How would you define a backlog?
  3. When/where should a backlog be considered waste?
  4. When/where should a backlog be considered essential?
  5. Is there a question or questions that I should have asked and I haven’t? If so, please ask and answer.

There’s a still a healthy amount of differing ideas even among this group, but some commonalities do emerge. You can take a look at all the responses here: http://www.infoq.com/articles/backlog-panel

Written by admin · Filed Under Scrum 

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