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Backlog Management

Backlog

Goals

  • User stories have a clear acceptance criteria and definition of done.
  • Design activities are planned as part of the backlog (a design for a story that needs it should be done before it is added in a Sprint).

Suggestions

  • Consider the backlog refinement as an ongoing activity, that expands outside of the typical "Refinement meeting".
  • The team should decide on and have a clear understanding of a definition of ready and a definition of done.
  • The team should have a clear understanding of what constitutes good acceptance criteria for a story/task, and decide on how stories/tasks are handled. Eg. in some projects, stories are refined as a crew, but tasks are created by individual developers on an as needed bases.
  • Technical debt is mostly due to shortcuts made in the implementation as well as the future maintenance cost as the natural result of continuous improvement. Shortcuts should generally be avoided. In some rare instances where they happen, prioritizing and planning improvement activities to reduce this debt at a later time is the recommended approach.

Resources

Last update: August 26, 2024