Learn Product Backlog Management (CSM) with Interactive Flashcards

Master key concepts in Product Backlog Management through our interactive flashcard system. Click on each card to reveal detailed explanations and enhance your understanding.

Backlog Grooming

Backlog grooming refers to the regular review of items in the product backlog to ensure that it remains clean, organized, and up to date. It comprises activities like removing obsolete items, adjusting the order of items based on their priority, providing estimates on backlog items, breaking down larger items, and adding details to existing items. Backlog grooming is typically done in dedicated sessions and also on an ongoing basis to keep the backlog relevant and manageable.

User Stories

User stories are one of the primary tools used in Agile Scrum for expressing requirements. They are brief, simple descriptions of a feature told from the perspective of the end-user. User stories provide a concise way of conveying the desired outcome of a particular functionality without getting into implementation details. They help to keep the development team focused on delivering value to the user. A good user story follows the I.N.V.E.S.T criteria: Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, and Testable.

Story Points & Estimation

Story points are a unit of measurement used in Agile Scrum, especially during backlog grooming to provide estimation. They are used to estimate the effort required to develop a backlog item. The estimates account for the work to be done, the complexity of the work, and any inherent uncertainty or risk. The concept of story points enables a more realistic and effective approach to estimation compared to traditional methods like focusing purely on time.

Minimum Viable Product

The Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a concept that comes from the Lean startup context, where the goal is to deliver a product with the smallest set of features that deliver value to the customer early. In the Scrum framework, this could be the smallest set of Product Backlog items that delivers value to the customers. This enables the Scrum Team to receive early and frequent customer feedback and to adapt the subsequent product backlog items based on this feedback.

Prioritization Techniques

Prioritization techniques are methods used to arrange or deal with products backlog items in order of importance. This is crucial in Scrum to make sure that the team always works on the most valuable features. Many different techniques can be used, such as MoSCoW (Must have, Should have, Could have, and Would like but won’t get this time), Value vs. Effort, Weighted Shorted Job First (WSJF), Kano model etc. These techniques help the product owner to decide on what to develop next.

Velocity Tracking

Velocity tracking is a measure of the amount of work that the Scrum team can tackle during a single Sprint and is the key metric in Scrum. Velocity is calculated at the end of the Sprint by totaling the Points for all fully completed User Stories. The velocity is used as input for planning the next Sprint and provides valuable feedback to the team on their estimating and work process. Trends in velocity over time can provide a useful check on reality for future release and product planning purposes.

Acceptance Criteria

Acceptance criteria are conditions that a software product must meet to be accepted by a user, a customer, or other system. They are unique for each user story and define the feature behavior from the end-user's perspective. Acceptance criteria ensure that all project members have the same understanding of how a feature or piece of functionality should work. Also, they provide a basis for testing to verify that a feature or piece of functionality is correctly implemented.

Ordering the Product Backlog

Ordering the Product Backlog involves prioritizing the backlog items based on the Product Owner's insight and strategies. It could be based on the perceived value, risk, cost, necessity, or any mix of these and other factors. Ordering the backlog informs the Scrum teams about the sequence of their work, aligns team members towards a common goal, and aids in delivering maximum value increment. It is a dynamic process that adjusts with every change in market, customer demands, or the company's needs.

Definition of Ready

The 'Definition of Ready' is a set of agreements that lets the team know that the product backlog item is ready for inclusion in the next sprint. It usually indicates that the user story is clearly defined, it is small enough to be completed within a sprint, test cases have been defined, dependencies are identified and mitigated, and that it aligns with the goals and vision of the project. This assures that the Scrum Team has a shared understanding of what it means for a product backlog item to be ready to be worked on.

Backlog Decomposition

Backlog Decomposition, also known as 'backlog grooming' or 'backlog refinement', is the process where you split 'big' product backlog items (typically epic stories) into smaller ones (typically 'user' stories). Decomposition helps make items manageable and ready for the team to tackle in future sprints, assists in clarifying requirements, and reduces the risk of misunderstanding and miscommunication.

Feature Breakdown Structure

Feature Breakdown Structure (FBS) is a hierarchical decomposition of features that need to be developed to complete a product or a large feature. It is similar to work breakdown structure but focuses on features instead of work. The FBS provides a visual representation of the features and their dependencies to help understand the scope of work better and identify risks and issues ahead of time.

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