How to deal with unfinished PBIs & Technical PBIs?
Hello!
I would like to share with you a few concerns I have to face with some new teams that I am helping adopting Scrum.
These are my concerns with the hope that we could share feedback :
- How do you deal with unfinished Sprint Backlog Items at the end of a Sprint? Do you review estimations before you engage them again in a future sprint? I think the Scrum Guide says to do so in case you cancel the Sprint. But is it the same when you just don't finish PBIs?
- Who writes the technical items? Sometimes the Product Owner is not able to deal with Tech Items like: refacto, tech or data migrations, etc. Being the only person in charge of the Product Backlog, knowing that there is only 1 PB for a Product, what's the best way to deal with technical items? (In our teams, tech items are co-written by Dev/PO during the refinement activity).
Thank you,
J.
Do you review estimations before you engage them again in a future sprint?
If Product Backlog items were not re-estimated, what might the consequences be for any forecasts made concerning the amount of work believed to remain?
Who writes the technical items?
The Scrum Guide says that refinement is an ongoing process in which the Product Owner and the Development Team collaborate on the details of Product Backlog items. If the Development Team were not involved, what might the consequences be for Sprint Planning?
How do you deal with unfinished Sprint Backlog Items at the end of a Sprint?
My practice has been to let the Development Team discuss it during the Review and then form a game plan with the entire Scrum Team. It could be the story needs a couple of hours work or a couple of days. Living the agile principle of "Simplicity -- the art of maximizing the amount of work not done -- is essential" I tend to coach that if it takes more effort to repoint than it does to complete the work, just complete it. As for @Ian's question about forecasting as I have said many times, I do not use estimates as the only indicator as it is a guess and a leading indicator. I pair that with a trailing indicator (throughput or cycle time as examples) to help with forecasting.
Being the only person in charge of the Product Backlog, knowing that there is only 1 PB for a Product, what's the best way to deal with technical items?
From the Scrum Guide section on the Product Owner found right after the discussion of the Product Owners ownership of the Product Backlog:
The Product Owner may do the above work, or have the Development Team do it. However, the Product Owner remains accountable.
There is nothing wrong with letting the Development Team create the technical stories. However they need to discuss the importance and impact of the story with the PO so that the ordering of the backlog can be done properly or the PO will not be able to be fully accountable for the Product Backlog.
Hi,
Thanks a lot for your kind and very instructive answers!
Very nice insights :)
J.