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.