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Create your backlog

Updated on July 13, 2020

As you design your solution you will start to create your backlog in your chosen agile project management tool. Your backlog will consist of epics and user stories, and it will evolve over time, as new stories are added, removed and re-prioritized. Your Product Owner is responsible for the backlog and chooses the order in which features are built. This will align with the microjourney™ you have already selected as your MLP.

When you first create your backlog, each user story should have at least one to two sentences written that define the work the user story represents; a user story is a vehicle to facilitate a shared understanding. This will enable you to give each user story an initial sizing, and assist the Product Owner in prioritizing the backlog. During sizing you will identify which of the larger user stories need to be divided into smaller, more manageable user stories. Use the Pega Scrum Sizing tool to verify your sizing, timeline and resourcing needs.

Over the course of the project, each user story will then be expanded during Directly Capture Objectives (DCO) workshops and acceptance criteria added. Pega best practice is to refine 2 sprints worth of user stories to meet the Definition of Ready criteria during Prepare, then to stay 2 sprints ahead during the project. This ensures the build team work on the highest priority features.

Your DCO sessions will start with an introduction to DCO for the project team so that they understand the process, followed by a scheduling session. A good schedule allows enough time for preparation, running each DCO session, contingency for more involved configuration, follow-up sessions and time to write, review and approve user stories.

What happens next? Once you have created your backlog, keep it up to date; this is vital to the success of your project. Your backlog will evolve and change over time, don’t spend forever trying to get it 100% right. A backlog is the central repository of your shared knowledge, but this will evolve as your application matures. New priorities will emerge and being prepared to make changes will ensure your project stays on course.

The related content links below provide methods and tools to help you.

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