As IT professionals have limited time for every set of items to execute, they choose the critical ones to accomplish first. Similarly, in software development, managers will undoubtedly have a long list of tasks to complete. However, the level of importance changes with time, and for this reason, managers create a separate backlog for each sprint in Agile projects. In this article at The Agile Times, the author explains how project managers must prioritize backlogs with Agile teams.
Why Should You Prioritize?
A well-prioritized Agile backlog makes iteration planning easier and sets expectations among stakeholders, especially when they bring additional work. Your backlog becomes more structured, organized, and arranged. This will further help you prioritize tasks crucial to you and your team to work on and stay focused on strategic vision.
Tips to Prioritize Your Backlog
Arrange the Top Items
One practice tip for staying organized is to arrange the top portion of the list as the contents for your next sprint. You can prioritize your backlogs based on:
- Customer priority
- Implementation difficulty
- Symbiotic relationships between work items
Seek inputs and feedback from customers, designers, and development teams to optimize everyone’s workload and project delivery.
Cut Off Priority Level-Two Tasks
The backlogs must remain as lean and realistic as possible. It must only contain the tasks on deck for your next sprint. Review the backlog before each iteration planning meeting to ensure your prioritization is right. Additionally, make sure to incorporate the feedback from the last iteration.
Difference Between Important and Urgent
“Look at what to prioritize from the current market outlook. This would either be in regard to the latest or upcoming technologies, purchasing trends, expert insight, demographics, etc.,” explains the author. If you anticipate any significant event shortly, prioritize them in your backlog items.
You must also include user stories, bugs, design changes, customer requests, technical debts, and action items from the retrospective in your backlog. This includes everyone’s work items in your overall discussion for each iteration. To read the original article, click on https://theagiletimes.com/prioritize-backlogs-agile-teams/.
