Scrum is a classic framework for Agile project management. In the latest edition of the Scrum Guide in 2020, the Father of Scrum clarified the definition of iteration goals and completion. “Product Backlog”, “Iteration Backlog” and “Increment” are regarded as the three core artifacts of Scrum practice in Agile project management, representing “product goal”, “iteration goal” and “Definition of iteration completion” respectively. The Backlog lists the Scrum team’s tasks in a prioritized form to increase transparency and focus the team on the progress of the project to achieve the delivery commitments. The ONES Project “To-do” component helps agile teams better manage Project requirements.
To-do list principles
The backlog is the product owner’s work list sorted out according to the roadmap and its requirements. It is the only source of work and requirement changes for the development team. The team develops according to the priority of the backlog to maximize the value of the product.
In his book “Succeeding With Agile”, Mike Cohn, founder of the Agile Alliance, says the “to-do list” needs to follow the DEEP principle:
Your words are Detailed and accurate.
User stories to be completed in iterations need to be detailed enough to eliminate story uncertainty and unknown possibilities, thus improving iteration efficiency. Stories with higher priority have smaller granularity; Lower priority stories can be less detailed.
Estimated (= Estimated)
Stories on the to-do list should be estimated, with higher priority stories needing more accurate estimates, and lower priority stories needing to be reestimated as more information becomes available.
It is Emergent.
To-do lists are not static, and as the team learns more about the project, user stories on the list can be increased, decreased, or reprioritized to respond flexibly to changes.
Put priorities in place
In the to-do list sorting process, the more valuable stories are placed at the top, and the r&d team always completes the highest priority items.
The principle of DEEP
How is your to-do list prioritized
All three roles on the Scrum team need to be involved in sorting out the backlog. The product owner, with the help of the Scrum Master, prioritises the backlog and explains the user story to the team, clarifies questions, sets acceptance criteria, etc. When prioritizing your to-do list, consider many factors: customer satisfaction, business value, frequency of requirements, development cost, risk, and complexity.
1 customer Satisfaction
User stories should meet customer needs and increase customer satisfaction with the product. Therefore, we need to assign higher priority to features that are likely to achieve higher customer satisfaction. In general, implement the basic requirements first, then the performance requirements, and finally the icing on the cake functionality.
2 Business Value
It is extremely important that the team understands and aligns business goals from the top down. Features that help the team maximize business value should certainly be given higher priority, and product owners should prioritize their backlog with long-term strategic goals in mind.
3 Demand frequency
Whether the feature is a requirement for most users/customers and how often the feature is used sometimes also needs to be considered. A frequently used product feature should take precedence over other features. For example, if the login interface of the system is used by all users, its development and experience optimization should be a higher priority.
4 development cost and rate of return
When considering development costs, we need to consider the cost as well as the return. Feature development with low cost and high return should be a high priority, and depending on the situation, sometimes high cost and high return can also be a high priority.
5. Risk and Complexity
High risk, high complexity features should be scheduled early in the project and iteration, which allows the team to identify and respond to them early in the project and iteration, but if they are placed on a low priority, they may cause the team to spend more time adjusting.
The ONES backlog component makes agile management transparent
Transparency, review, and adaptation are the three pillars of Scrum. The “to-do list” helps the Agile team clearly understand the work ahead, and the product owner needs to review the progress of the tasks on the list frequently, adding, removing, or adjusting the list as necessary to fit the team’s actual business scenario. In order to better manage the to-do list, the product owner needs to make the “to-do list” online to ensure the transparency of information and improve the efficiency of collaboration.
The ONES Project “To-do list” component helps product owners efficiently organize their to-do lists by easily dragging and dropping high-priority work items (such as requirements) into iterations to complete iteration plans; At the same time, you can also plan the backlog to release, complete the release plan. Using iterative planning as an example, a Scrum team can manage to-do lists through the following processes:
- The product owner combs the to-do list, combs the demand priority;
- Hold iteration planning meetings where iteration members assess high-priority requirements;
- Create an iteration and drag requirements into the iteration;
- Estimate iteration scale to avoid unreasonable planning and resource waste;
- Start iterations, develop implementations, complete requirements;
- After the iteration is complete, the to-do list does not show completed requirements and iterations.
Onestodo usage guide
1 Add the ToDo component and set the data range
Add the “To-do” component to your project Settings,And select the work item data that can be displayed, if you select requirements and tasks, the outstanding requirements and tasks under this item are included in the todo list. Catalog also supportsSet permissions for the To-do componentTo ensure the security of project data.
The ONES Project “To-do list” component
2 Create a work item and comb the to-do list
The “To-do list” component displays the unfinished requirements, tasks and other work items under the current project, and divides them into “planned” and “to be planned” areas according to whether the work items have been planned to the iteration. In the “To Plan” area, “Create work Item” and fill in the work item details. The product owner combs through the to-do list based on priorities and drags high-priority work items up the list.
“New Work Item” in to Plan
Drag and drop to adjust to-do priorities
3. Plan the iteration and evaluate the iteration scale
During the planning phase, the product owner can create a new iteration in the “planned” area and drag and drop the higher-priority work items into the iteration to complete the iteration plan.
“New Iteration” in the planned
Drag a high-priority task to the iteration
At the same time, iteration leaders can estimate iteration size based on story points. The ONES system automatically calculates the “current scale” and “proposed scale” for each iteration, which respectively reflect the relationship between the amount of work planned for the iteration and the team’s R&D capability, helping the product owner avoid unreasonable planning or waste of resources.
Assess iteration size and plan resources appropriately
4 Start the iteration and complete the “To-do”
Developers work against the “to-do list” of the iteration they are responsible for, and completed work items are no longer displayed on the list until the iteration is complete.
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