Backlog Mismanagement Destroys Team: Film at 11

Poor backlog management can make a high performing, collocated team degenerate into a room of individuals who are just bugging each other.

When a team is collocated in what is meant to be a collaborative workspace, any benefit that may be realized is completely negated if the team is not working on the same project.

I have seen this anti-pattern occur often, primarily in resource constrained environments: A team is given a backlog with unrelated items prioritized at the top. As the iteration begins, the team will naturally segment into still smaller teams that allow focus in sets of 2s and 3s. Worse still, individuals own work totally just to “get it done”.

This grab bag of work causes nearly constant context switching, which makes a collocated team environment almost unbearable. There is no point in sharing space with people who are not working toward the same goals you are throughout the day. In fact, this is the thing that people really hate because we all know it makes us inefficient.

As a Master Product Owner, managing your product backlog this way can negate all advantages you have in a high performing team. Let them focus, let them deliver together.