What to Do Before Adding Items to the Backlog - Mike Cohn

What to Do Before Adding Items to the Backlog - Mike Cohn

Have you seen “The Princess Bride” movie?
I love it. (And the book is even better.)
The film tells the love story of Buttercup and Westley. Westley works on Buttercup’s family’s farm and any time she asks him to do something, he responds, “As you wish.”
This is *not* how a team should respond when a product owner asks a team to do something.
Before doing what their product owner requests, team members should ask questions. This ensures they understand what’s needed, but also confirms the product owner has thought through the request sufficiently.
I’ve seen many situations in which product owners ultimately realize they never really wanted the thing they initially asked for.
I think team members should even go so far as to push back slightly if they have doubts about the benefit of something a product owner has requested.
Product owners are meant to be the authority on their products, the wise and most knowledgeable voice. But team members’ opinions should not be discounted.
Team members are valuable stakeholders who may have unique insights into how a product works. If they have concerns about a request, they deserve to be heard. And product owners owe it to users to listen.
Ideally, a product owner asks a team to achieve some goal rather than simply perform a simple task.
“Fetch that” may have worked for Buttercup telling Westley what to do. And a simple task like that may warrant an “As you wish” response.
On an agile project, however, asking questions before possibly telling the product owner, “As you wish” is the way to succeed with agile.

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