Product Ownership

To task or not to task

Analyzing wether its a good idea to break Product Backlog Items (PBIs) down into tasks or not.

Tristan Libersat

Jun 24, 2020 • 8 min read

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Backlog

Product Specifications

Backlog Refinement

Task Board

Summary

Why do over 60% of Agile teams breakdown their work into a Sprint Backlog and is it okay to decompose work into units? Tristan Libersat in this article explains whether it's effective to simplify work into tasks in a bid to achieve organizational goals. He notes that the Sprint Backlog includes both the Product Backlog Items (PBIs) and the plan on how to execute them to achieve the Product Increment or goal of the Sprint Review, basing on the Scrum Guide.

Takeaways

Research shows that 66% of Agile Teams use a taskboard to manage their day-to-day activities.
The Plan to deliver a Product Increment is usually decomposed into units of work so that the team can monitor the Sprint execution.
The Product Backlog and the Sprint Backlog are completely different. The Product Backlog is described as an ordered list of Product Backlog Items (PBIs) while the Sprint Backlog includes both the Product (PBIs) selected for the Sprint and a plan to deliver the Product Increment.