Product Backlog Management
Hi,
I have read the scrum guide, and have understood that PB Management is Product Owner's responsibility. And one of the activity in this management is to add new PBIs to the backlog or remove irrelevant PBIs from the backlog. Who is authorized to this particular activity? Is it only PO, who can even 'touch' the backlog or anybody (including DT and stakeholders) can add\remove PBIs?
There are two specific questions from certification point of view -
Who is ACCOUNTIBLE for PB?
Who is RESPONSIBLE for PB?
Cheers,
Vivek
Vivek,
The Product Owner is directly responsible and accountable for the content and order of the Product Backlog.
I have worked in Scrum environments where anyone had authority to add stories to the backlog, but it was always at the PO's discretion to prioritize such items, or remove them if they desired. Even when the "adding" of items was opened up, the maintenance of the Product Backlog was still single-threaded through the Product Owner. This approach simply created a lot of noise for the PO to deal with.
In my mind, the best approach is to respect the PO's management of the Product Backlog, and funnel any potential additions through them, in order to reduce maintenance waste.
One potential topic for discussion is around mitigating the single point of failure (PO) that this approach promotes.