Product Release Backlog

Product Release Backlog Ordering Technique: Factoring Business Value and Risk

vggg9b-ordering-product-backlog---asg-lowerres-squashed
blue spacer line (3_5 pt at 1000 px)

Agile Workflows

blue spacer line (3_5 pt at 1000 px)


🔥 There's an updated version of this article. You can see it here.

Scrum is the most popular agile project development and delivery framework. In Scrum, the product release backlog (sometimes referred to as the product backlog) is a list of features, user stories, bugs to be fixed, and/or other requirements. The Product Owner is the ultimate holder of the backlog. The Product Owner prioritizes items, and different methods can be employed to help accomplish that work. This brief article focuses on the technique of factoring business value and risk.

Each item in the product release backlog would be rated as either high or low in two dimensions: business value and risk. It is suggested that high business value, high-risk items are worked on first. While that may seem counterintuitive, the earlier this work is done, the sooner the team will move to mitigate the issues and unknowns—leading to a higher quality product. If there's a failure, it will occur early and relatively inexpensively.

An ordering of priorities is illustrated above, and it follows:

1. High business value, high risk.
2. High business value, low risk.
3. Low business value, low risk.
4. Low business value, high risk.

Alternatively, other prioritization methods—such as the MoSCoW ranking model— may be used. MoSCoW will be highlighted in a subsequent article.

This content is an abridged excerpt from the award-winning book,
Agile Scrum: Your Quick Start Guide with Step-by-Step Instructions, available in digital and print formats.

Agile Scrum is offered in ebook/Kindle format (ASIN: B01FZ0JIIY) in:


Agile Scrum is sold in paperback (ISBN-13: 9781533370242) in:


Get your copy today!


black_spacer_lr_sq_v3

Let's Connect

AgileScrumGuide_-_Follow_Up_on_Twitter_-_v22020407-ASG-BLG-LR-SQ

Connect with
AgileScrumGuide.com on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Pinterest.

And c
onnect with agile project management practitioner, consultant, award-winning author, and international speaker Scott M. Graffius on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

black_spacer_lr_sq_v3



© Copyright 2018 Scott M. Graffius, AgileScrumGuide.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the express written permission of Scott M. Graffius/AgileScrumGuide.com.



Award-Winning Book -Agile Scrum