Initial Product Backlog Creation Workshop

Overview

1-5 days

In Scrum and most other agile methods there is a period, before the first iteration, during which we need to create a release plan or initial Product Backlog of high-level requirements, estimates, and so forth. A target date and content goal are needed. In Scrum terms, we need to create the Release Backlog -- the subset of the Product Backlog describing the next release, in terms of items, effort estimates, value estimates, risk, and priority.

Learning how to do agile release planning requires coaching-while-doing; it can't be effectively learnt in a classroom setting. In this workshop, the coach will facilitate the activities of release planning for a real product, while educating.

Methods of Education

primarily workshop exercises & coaching; some discussion, presentation, Q&A

Audience

This can be for 1 to 3 (maximum) product groups. Attendees should include a cross-functional representation from product management, developers, testers, marketing, sales, and other relevant stakeholders. It needs to include at least 2 representatives from each Team, and the Product Owner.

Level

This is an immersive workshop. No prior knowledge is required, but the experiences and knowledge will extend from introductory to intermediate or advanced.

Prerequisites

none.

Objectives

This is not a course per se, but a product-specific (or 2 products maximum) workshop to create the release plan for a Scrum-based development release. Nevertheless, learning how to do agile release planning is an important complimentary goal, in addition to actually creating the plan. Thus, learning objectives include (but are not limited to):

• impact mapping with quantified goals and measurement points
• agile estimating and planning
• doing stories with Card, Conversation, and Confirmation
• story mapping
• splitting large requirements
• specification by example
• affinity clustering
• Scrum Product Backlog creation
• prioritization (ordering) in Scrum
• much more

Maximum Participants

30.

Environment - Room, Tools, Texts

• 2 computer projectors and 2 project screens (or big white walls we can project on to)
• and, this: Course Environment - Workshop Style1

Text and Notes

• a useful pre-read is The Scrum Primer