Predictability breakdown in backlog management
I am a Scrum Master in a embedded software development team of ten engineers. I work closely with a Product Owner who manages all software features, centralising the entire flow of requests and dealing with numerous stakeholders around the world. The backlog is constantly growing, as the incoming volume of requests exceeds the Product Owner's capacity to process them. This situation creates a bottleneck, with an average request qualification time (or discovery lead time) reaching one month.
This delay paralyses project planning and removes any predictability for stakeholders.
Separation of responsibilities and improved capacity
I initially provided on-the-ground support for analysing and processing requests from the French team in order to relieve the central Product Owner. This phase confirmed the need to increase Product Ownership capacity, leading to a split in responsibilities. I then stepped down from my role as Scrum Master to take on the role of Product Owner, with the following levers:
- Integration within engineering and design bodies to identify technological requirements and constraints
- Conception of a dedicated product roadmap
- Official split of the global backlog and creation of a local backlog comprising 200 active requests
- Restructuring of backlog governance and alignment with the roadmap
- Integration of request qualification activities within Scrum teams to accelerate the stabilisation of the backlog size
Improved predictability and cycle times
My work has helped to provide stakeholders with greater visibility and predictability regarding development planning. We have succeeded in:
- Optimising communication with stakeholders
- Reducing the average qualification time by 50%
- Stabilising the size of the backlog
- Deploying 70% of the 200 initial requests in the backlog into production
As an Operations Manager in Business Operations, I restore predictability to R&D and Support functions to ensure the operational continuity and operational resilience of organisations.
