BA Technique Review: Backlog Management
A technique for documenting, communicating, and managing work in Agile practices.
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Business analysts who run Agile methodologies know that adaptive planning, early delivery, and continual improvement are part of their daily practice. All this is in line with managing change, prioritising, and estimating quickly and easily. To help with this, Backlog Management is a popular technique for documenting, communicating, and managing the worklist. Check below a summary of what it is, why it is used, how to apply this technique, and its strengths and limitations.
· What?
Backlog Management is a business analysis technique used to record, track, and prioritise remaining work items in a product backlog. In Agile practices, a backlog is a prioritised list of deliverables that must be implemented as part of an initiative.
· Why?
Typically, a backlog occurs when the amount of work to be completed exceeds a team’s ability to complete it; thus, a list of work items is documented to manage change and delivery better. Backlog Management is used when necessary to have a decision-making artifact to assist estimate, refining, and prioritise the work to be delivered by an initiative within an Agile environment.
· How?
The Backlog Management technique includes four main elements: the items included in the Backlog, the prioritisation of these items, the estimation of each item, and the management of changes to the Backlog. The application of this technique is carried out through the application of these elements:
1. Items in the Backlog: Business analysts must define and agree with the stakeholders about the backlog items. Note that backlog items encompass any item which may have work associated with it, including:
• change requests,
• completing a document,
• conducting a presentation,
• customer orders,
