Breaking Down Product Backlog Items
When Product Backlog items are large and complex, the Scrum Team typically finds them ambiguous and overwhelming. Breaking down Product Backlog items or splitting them into smaller, manageable pieces of value allows the Scrum Team to develop more of a shared understanding of what needs to be done. It also better enables the Scrum Team to deliver at least one Done increment in each Sprint and have quicker feedback loops. This allows the Scrum Team to consider the most important work first and increases their ability to pivot faster.
To illustrate, consider a large Product Backlog item for an e-commerce business, allowing online payments. This feature includes the ability for a customer to pay with three different types of credit cards, online banking transfer and gift cards. When the team breaks down this Product Backlog item, the Product Owner is in a better position to decide what is most important to pursue first and can order how they see best fit. For example, since most of their customers use credit cards to pay, the product should likely offer the ability to pay by credit card first. This approach of pursuing smaller pieces of work allows for quicker learning and ensures that the most valuable aspects of the product are developed earlier.
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