Multiple Product Goals
Dears
I am thinking in my mind to build a data platform using Scrum. Imagine the data platform as a product. There exist a product owner, product backlog, a scrum master, and 25 developers/testers/admins etc.
I like to divide 25 members team into sub-teams and have multiple goals in my product backlog, and assign those goals to respective teams. Example:
These 2 go to "Performance Optimization" team
- Improve data latency of big tables
- Improve query response time
This goes to security, audit, compliance team
- Ensure no authorizations mismatch
However, I read that there can be only product goal in the backlog to keep focus and avoid distraction. Please suggest/advise for the above point of view.
Thank you.
Br,
Noor.
I read that there can be only product goal in the backlog to keep focus and avoid distraction
That's right, in so far as they must fulfill (or abandon) one objective before taking on the next. However in Scrum a goal is also a commitment, which you seem to be trying to make for others.
My advice is to encourage people to self-organize into teams which decide the goals they individually and jointly commit to, including more immediate Sprint Goals, and which self-manage their integration dependencies.
Hi Ian,
In relation to the topic, let's say I'm handling a channel that has multiple products. For instance, we have frontend, integration and backend systems. It's 3 different systems working as one with the intent to fully support our channel.
Should I treat those 3 systems as one product (single product backlog) with the goal to enable our stakeholders to perform better? or should I split it to 3 different product backlogs?
have multiple goals in my product backlog
The product backlog can have stories,tasks etc. related to the product goal. Let there be a single product goal (for the data platform). List out what features will be needed to achieve that goal (prioritize them based on must have, should have, could have and wont have). For individual teams, the product goal will be the north star and let the teams have sprint goals every sprint. Take care of inter team dependencies by facilitating a meeting with members from each team.
Once the product goal is achieved you can have more goals.
If your data platform is going to be your product, it may help to first get crisp on what that means. What is the scope of your product? What are the boundaries (what is in and what is out of scope)? Who are your customers? What is your product vision?
Once this is clear and you have a product vision, what is the first most important thing to focus on in support of that vision? That becomes your Product Goal. That singular goal not only helps with focus, but it also helps with cohesion and improves your odds of achieving the desired outcomes associated to that goal.
If you chase two rabbits, both will escape. Same could be said about goals. Product Goal is about chasing one at a time.