My own course
Product Owner and refinement techniques
Training and workshop
How a product backlog is built, how it is maintained, and how to derive forecasts from it without undermining the agile approach.
Well begun is half done.
Aristotle
Why this course exists
For more than fifteen years I have supported organizations through agile transformations. I keep seeing the same pattern, whichever method they chose: agility gets introduced for delivery, while requirements analysis stays more or less untouched.
In waterfall we think first and build complete concepts. That sounds reasonable. In complex settings, though, not everything can be worked out in advance. Agile working models address that through short cycles and empirical process control. Turning previously written concepts into user stories does not help much. The uncertainty in the analysis remains.
Letting teams simply build the next best idea is no solution either. It leads to a product without direction and to deliveries that do not fit together. And as soon as delivery dates are agreed with stakeholders, classic analysis comes back so that effort can be estimated and planned. That creates a sequential process and undermines the agile approach from the very beginning.
Yet there are techniques that dissolve exactly this pattern: impact mapping, user story mapping, cell-based splitting. Applied properly and combined with visualization and analysis of the product backlog, they also answer the question of predictability without putting the agile approach at risk.
That is why I built this course.
Who it is for
Product owners, and anyone who wants insight into the work around the product backlog.
What you will learn
- How to deal with complexity
- How to build and structure your product backlog
- How to maintain it continuously
- Which refinement techniques work for large topics and at item level
- How to connect discovery and delivery through dual-track development
- How to handle several competing stakeholders
- How to run refinement sessions, for single teams and across several teams
- How to read progress from the product backlog and produce forecasts that do not destroy your agile approach
Content
Product owner and artifacts Handling complex and very large requirements. Four dimensions of slicing backlog items. Backlog structure. Keeping the backlog flowing. Working with several stakeholders.
Creating a product backlog from scratch Who is involved? Impact mapping. User story mapping including MVP and release strategy. Cell-based splitting.
Product backlog refinement Who is involved? Refinement versus software design. Continuous refinement connecting discovery and delivery. Refinement techniques at item level. Specification by example.
How to run refinement sessions Open space, world café, fishbowl.
Working with the product backlog Prioritizing and reprioritizing by customer and stakeholder value. Tracking progress from the product backlog.
One day or two
In the one-day version we work on simple examples from your context, to try the techniques out and get a sense of how they will work for you.
In the two-day version we practice on your actual features and items, and the refinement exercises run as a multi-team session. You experience the different formats yourself.
If you and your teams already know the techniques, the second day can be booked on its own, for instance to facilitate the first backlog refinement of a newly formed product group.
Details
- Length
- One to two days
- Languages
- German or English
- Prerequisites
- The basics of Scrum or Kanban and the related roles. You should know what a product backlog is.
- Participants
- Up to 15. As a workshop for a first product backlog refinement, up to 80.
- Price
- On request, depending on group size and length, and on whether a second facilitator is needed