Understanding the Purpose of the Backlog in Scrum

In traditional software development methods, the backlog is typically cumbersome and a burden on the project.

And it’s piled atop mountains of previous tasks for the employees. Often times, it takes tremendous, unbudgeted amounts of time to sort through an entire backlog. With agile product development, the idea that this is a standard practice has been vanquished. Instead, companies are pulling from backlogs as they’re progressing through their agile development methods.

The benefit of such an approach is that you’re better able to address the backlog and meet other deadlines. It’s not dead weight, sinking the project. Many projects fail because of unaccounted snags in the product and development line.

With a backlog, you know exactly what needs to be done, how pressing it is and how much time will need to be invested. Watch the full video from OpenView Labs with Jeff Sutherland, co-creator of Scrum, for more information on backlogs.

Corey O'Loughlin
Corey O'Loughlin
Owner

Corey was a marketing analyst at OpenView from 2010 until 2011. Currently Corey is the Owner of Prep Obsessed and was previously the Marketing Manager at MarketingProfs.
You might also like ...
Product
The Evolution of Miro's User Onboarding: Why Big Investments Didn't Stick, and Smart Iterations Won

Miro’s Kate Syuma shares how the company’s growth team iterated smart to improve the user onboarding journey for their popular collaborative platform.

by Kate Syuma
Product Management
Scaling Product Management: Strategic Investment Allocation
Editor’s note: This is the fifth part in a series on Scaling Product Management From Series B to IPO. Read...
by Scott Williamson
Product
How Wiz Built A Must-Have Category – And Hit $100M ARR in Only 18 Months
Every startup wants to be a category creator. But, how do you actually accomplish that? And is it always the...
by Kaitlyn Henry