Backlog - Does your Product Owner know how to maintain the backlog?

All good Scrum teams have a backlog. The backlog is built by taking a conversation and recording it as one or more Product Backlog Items (PBIs) (e.g. Azure DevOps) or Issues (e.g. GitHub, JIRA).

You should create PBIs during or straight after the conversation, rather than using emails that may never be entered into the backlog.

Typing — Figure: Get typing during a conversation to make the meeting tangible

The Product Owner is responsible for owning the Product Backlog. See the video on "Do you know how to be a good Product Owner?"

Although these requirements come from the Product Owner, it is often the developers who will record these PBIs.

1. Emails

EmailBadExample — Figure: Bad example - This is a poor way to add a PBI/Issue as you can’t order emails by the business priority

GitHub Issues (Recommended)

3. Azure DevOps - E.g. https://ssw.visualstudio.com

AzureDevOpsBacklog 1710232021931 — Figure: Good example - Azure DevOps allows you to enter an item into the backlog, in any priority order

What's next?

Discuss the backlog
What to do when it's done?

Scrum using Azure DevOps (Work Items)

Scrum using GitHub (Issues and Projects)

Scrum

GitHub Issues - Do you use Issue Templates?
Do you have templates for your PBIs and Bugs?
Do you turn an email into a PBI before starting work?