Backlogs Aren't Meant to Hold It All - Mike Cohn

Backlogs Aren't Meant to Hold It All - Mike Cohn

Backlogs are like dessert: best in moderation. Having a backlog that’s too big is a sign of trouble like an extra-wide slice of pie with two scoops of ice cream.
This goes for both product and sprint backlogs. Each should be kept to a manageable size.
The Sprint Backlog
A sprint backlog can become unwieldy when team members start to use it as a catchall for their personal to-do lists.
For example, one of my colleagues was recently working on a submission to the Scrum Gathering in New Orleans that’s happening in May 2024.
It's important for him, and it’s good for our company. So I support the work. But it wasn’t on the sprint backlog because nobody else had anything to do with it.
It was just one person creating his presentation proposal and occasionally asking a few of us for feedback.
Perfecting the proposal isn’t a shared goal; the rest of us would never say, "Oh, he’s out sick today. Let me jump in and work on his proposal."
If others need to know about the work or can sub for you on the work, put it on the sprint backlog. Otherwise, consider leaving it off.
The Product Backlog
The product backlog can become outsized when too many half-baked ideas are added to it.
When working as a product owner, I don’t want to clutter the product backlog with every idea I have. So I maintain a second list: a backlog of sorts. I call it a holding tank. It holds ideas until I either move them to the product backlog or delete them.
I’m not trying to hide anything from a team by using a holding tank. I just don’t want to bother anyone with some ideas until I’ve given them more thought.
It’s kind of like the new recipe I found for key lime pie. I bookmarked it, but the items to make it haven’t made it to my shopping list yet. And when it does, one slice will be plenty!
Keeping your sprint and product backlogs to a manageable size will help you succeed with agile.

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