Deleting the Product Backlog Is Your Salvation to Be Agile

Once the old goes away, the door opens for the new.

Photo by Kinga Kołodziejska on Unsplash

Before I start telling you why deleting your Product Backlog is your key to freedom, let me ask you some questions:

• How many items do you have in your Product Backlog?
• When did you create your oldest Product Backlog Item?
• How often do you refine something with your Scrum Team that never makes it to a Sprint but still has a safe place in your Product Backlog?

Please, take your time to reflect on these questions. It’s important to be brutally honest. Once I asked the same questions to myself, and I got the following:

• 450 Product Backlog Items.
• Three years and seven months was my oldest Product Backlog Item.
• At least 100 items were refined, estimated, and never made to a Sprint.

When I reflected on this situation, I was sure of only one thing:

I missed the mark of what being Agile means.

Now let me share with you why deleting your Product Backlog might be your salvation for being Agile.

An Extensive Product Backlog Is a Strong Enemy for…