Making Hard Decisions about Priority with a Pyramid Backlog
Introduction
The Pyramid Backlog is a visual prioritization tool that helps force hard decisions on the most important things to work on, at the Product Backlog level. Agile Coach Jimmy Janlén describes the technique in his book Visualization Examples: Toolbox for the Agile Coach.
When To Use It
When A Product Owner/a team are having difficulty narrowing the focus down to a reasonably small number of items to work on.
Prerequisites
- A list of items that need to be prioritized (work items in a Product Backlog)
- Willingness to keep the list of things to be prioritized reasonably small (do NOT attempt to prioritize everything in the Product Backlog, as that will likely be wasted effort, because some of those things you might NEVER work on)
How does it work?
1. Make sure there is agreement on the list of things to be prioritized, and as noted above, be sure to keep the number of items reasonably small
2. Create a physical or virtual representation of the Pyramid Backlog, as shown in the example above.
3. Agree on the ground rules for the exercise:
- There can be one, and only one, priority one, and that work item goes in the top row
- There can be two, and only two, work items that go in the next row
- There can be three, and only three, work items that go in the third row
(Continue this pattern for a number of rows that work in your context)
4. Once you’ve got work items placed in the various rows, take a step back and discuss as a group. Is there a need to move anything up or down?
5. Use the outcomes from the conversation to inform follow-on activities, such as Backlog Refinement and Sprint Planning.
Note: It can be helpful to use the Pyramid Backlog on a continuing basis, as a prioritization tool. For teams that are in habit of putting physical artifacts on the wall, it can be very helpful to have this in the same area as the team Kanban board, for instance.
Note 2: There are quite a few variations in terms of how this model can be applied. In the illustration above, for instance, there is a suggestion that all of the items in the top three rows of the Pyramid backlog be reasonably small, that all of the items in the next couple of rows are sized (but might not be as small), and that the items in the remaining rows might or might not be sized. Experiment with what works best for you.
