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Product Backlog Management as defined in Scrum Guide

Last post 01:41 pm August 11, 2013 by Ian Mitchell
1 reply
Dinesh Dhamodarasamy
04:10 pm August 9, 2013

Scrum Friends,

I have a question related to the 'Product Backlog Management' section under 'Product Owner' section of the Scrum Guide(Page 5). The guide mentions that Product Backlog Management' includes

"Optimizing the value of the work the Development Team performs".

How does this relate to the opening statement 'The Product Owner is responsible for maximizing the value of the product and the work of the Development Team."

While I understand how the Product Owner maximizes the value of the product by clearly expressing Product Backlog Items and ordering them based on value, I feel that the statement "Optimizing the value of the work the Development Team performs" is redundant - I think I am obviously missing something as it is included in the guide for a reason.

Does anyone have insight or a different interpretation on this?

Thanks,
Dinesh

Ian Mitchell
01:41 pm August 11, 2013

I think there is a subtle difference, in so far as maximizing and optimizing aren't quite the same thing. Optimization is more about the value stream (think about what gets challenged in a Sprint Retrospective) while maximizing value is more about the product (think about what is assessed in a Sprint Review).

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