Professional Scrum Product Backlog Management Skills

Manage and Maintain your Product Backlog to Deliver Greater Value

The Product Backlog is an emergent, ordered list of what is needed to improve the product. It is the single source of work undertaken by the Scrum Team. It changes constantly and requires a Product Owner to consider many options when adding to, deleting from, updating, and ordering it. 

Professional Scrum Product Backlog Management Skills™ is an interactive course designed to help Scrum practitioners improve their ability to manage all aspects of the Product Backlog and stakeholder communication. 

About Your Instructor

Jeff brings a wealth of experience and knowledge after 30  years of consulting at dozens of clients in industries as diverse as  online commerce and medical device development.  In his career  he has served as a software engineer, systems analyst, application tester, team lead and project manager (yes, the waterfall kind!).  Then he dipped his toe in Agile in 2011 as a Scrum Master and never looked back.  The next dozen years included roles as a Scrum Master, Agile Coach and Professional Scrum Trainer™.  

Now as a Partner at agilityIRL (agility In Real Life) - Jeff gets inspiration by seeing those "lightbulb moments" for clients and students.  The moment when a new concept clicks, when someone can see a different way of working, different way of interacting with colleagues and ways to be more effective in their job with less stress and more success.  Jeff has a big bank of real-life moments to draw from to bring the class to life. 

Jeff brings a pragmatic approach to questions raised in class.  Many of them have "right" answers in how to apply the Scrum framework.  More often the questions hit the gray area of applying Scrum to a student's specific work environment.  While there aren't often easy answers, Jeff's broad experience can help give context to how he has seen similar problems in the past, the approaches taken and the tradeoffs of those approaches.  

Check out the reviews!  Some student comments include:

• "Great balance of practical and theoretical content!"
• "One of the better classes ever taken"
• "Interactive and informative"
• "Great activities to keep participants engaged along with helping us understand how to apply Scrum to real life."
• "great real world examples and challenges related to being a scrum master."

Check out Jeff's take5IRL podcast!  It will give you insight to Jeff's personality and communication style and you might pick up a few insights along the way!  Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.

Course Overview

In this one-day skills-building course, participants will learn techniques and methods to effectively manage a Product Backlog that clearly expresses the future vision of the product and brings transparency to what is most valuable for the Scrum Team to work on to delight stakeholders and customers. Students will get hands-on experience with refinement techniques such as decomposing and slicing Product Backlog items, while learning how simplicity can cure complicated and complex Product Backlogs. 

Students will be able to connect the Product Goals they are investing in to the work being done to ensure that they are delivering value as well as how to understand and manage their relationships with the stakeholders involved. 
 

View the different Focus Areas covered within this class and others.

Course Learning Objectives

• Apply practical techniques to create, refine, and order the Product Backlog
• Identify and effectively communicate with stakeholders 
• Capture stakeholder's needs on a Product Backlog
• Find better ways to make the Product Backlog more transparent
• Use empiricism as a competitive advantage

Who Should Attend this class?

This course is appropriate for students who are currently working as a Product Owner and are looking for practical ways to manage their Stakeholders and Product Backlog. The course also caters to a range of roles involved in agile development and product management. The Product Backlog Management course is for:

• Professionals interested in learning essential Product Owner practices
• Product Owners looking to better understand their customers and stakeholders
• Scrum Masters wishing to be an effective coach to Product Owners will also find valuable insights in this course
• Product Managers and Business Analysts looking to improve their Product Backlog management skills 

Professional Scrum Certification

All participants completing the Professional Scrum Product Backlog Management Skills course will receive a password to attempt the Professional Scrum Product Backlog Management Skills assessment. PSPBM Skills class participants who attempt the PSPBM Skills assessment within 14 days of the class and do not score at least 85% will be granted a 2nd attempt at no additional cost.