PO Backlog
Hi there
Just a question on backlog and whether dependencies are taken into account by the PO ) goes against the Independent part of Invest) or would these be prompted by the Dev Team.
Is priority a no go term now since the Scrum guide talks about an ordered list ?
Thanks
Kb
By definition any dependencies between user stories must mean they are not independent. Since dependencies can arise in both business and technical contexts, it follows that both the Product Owner and Development Team have a part to play in identifying them. This is one of the reasons why Product Backlog refinement should involve the whole Scrum Team.
It's fine to consider Product Backlog items in terms of priority. The important thing is not to confuse priority with order, because they are not necessarily the same thing. Lower priority items can rank above higher ones if they allow a more coherent Sprint Goal to be crafted, or if they allow important contingency to be be planned into high-risk sprints. In such cases priority may be expressed not in terms of an item's order but rather in terms of its value (e.g. MoSCoW priority), and any given sprint may contain a mix of differently valued items.
Thanks Ian
Hi,
is it possible to use moscow in user stories itself?
To prioritize some requirements of a user story?
It could be an interesting exercise for teams who are struggling to keep acceptance criteria simple and valuable. I'd imagine any requirement classified as 'will not have' should probably be struck from the user story.
This approach could create significant overhead if you're doing it for every story. I've typically found it more useful for the story itself, however, that's not to say you can't give it a try and inspect whether it's worth the time to get that granular.
You could also try a liberating structure called 'Min Specs' to help teams get down to what they really need to achieve the goal.