The Backlog

Project backlog vs iteration backlog

An important tool in planning is the project backlog or product backlog. This is a collection of all work items yet to be realized during the project, to the extent they’re known. The latter is an important addition. The backlog is never a definitive view of all work items, but only of the currently known work items. The backlog is a snapshot.

In general, the project backlog is a list of work items, with or without an estimate in points or hours or the priority listed there. The project backlog can have different types of work items, just like balls in the Lingo game. Sometimes the balls are blue, sometimes green, and sometimes red. In Scrum and Extreme Programming, the backlog is filled with user stories (referred to as “US”), in Feature-driven development with features, and in Smart with smart use cases.

For each iteration, the work items that are selected during the kick-off are posted on a second backlog. This is called the iteration backlog, and in Scrum, the sprint backlog.

Choosing work items for iteration backlog

While the work items in the project backlog are usually not very detailed, there’s a golden rule when selecting work items for the iteration backlog. At the time work items are chosen to be realized during an iteration, there should be sufficient knowledge to actually realize them. This is checked through the ready definition.

To ensure that there’s sufficient knowledge about the work items, most Agile projects choose to prepare the work items during the previous iteration. Many projects direct that 10 percent of the time available in an iteration is spent on preparing ...