The Agile Team and Its Backlog

Written by Cequan Zhen

Teamwork is an essential and important in today’s software development.  In the same way, it is very important in Agile. However, The Agile team has some different roles and effects than the team in the traditional development model. In here, I am going to talk about what the Agile team and its backlog are for and why they are important in Agile.

The Agile team has some differences than the traditional team. First of all, it is a cross-functional team. In traditional teams, they are divided by different function, such as for requirement, design, development, or testing. However, the teams in Agile are very different. Each team must have full functions. It includes not only designer, developer, and specialist but also domain expert and customer. A team with different role is important for Agile. It allows each team to work independently.  A cross-functional team is very helpful to find out the questions and solve them in a quick way. Furthermore, The Agile team must have frequent conversations. Each Agile team should have a short meeting before working. The members simply describe what they have done and what they are going to do today and ask questions. It is very helpful to improve their daily activities. As Martin Fowler (2014) points out, “Agile teams cannot exist with occasional communication. They need continuous access to business expertise.” Finally, most Agile teams are in small scale. According to Agile Alliance (2013), an Agile team is supposed to have “at least three people” and generally not more than ten. It is easy to understand that a small team is good for communication, and of course it will improve working activities. As M. A. Awad (2005) states in his report, Agile model works well in small teams, but it is more difficult in large teams (P. 20).  For example, Scrum is the most common team in Agile. Generally, it has only 5 to 9 members, but their works are effective.

Note: The picture is from www.unf.edu.

There are two types of backlog in Agile: product backlog and sprint backlog. According to Scott W. Ambler and Matthew Holitza (2012), product backlog is all the requirements about the product, and sprint backlog is the requirements related to each sprint (P. 25). In simple words, backlog is all the tasks that we need to do in the Agile team. It is formed by a lot of user stories about the product. In Agile, the whole product backlog is divided into many small sprint backlogs, and each sprint backlog will be done in a short time. Obviously, a small backlog can be done easily, and it also ensures the whole project can be finished on time.

Team and backlog are important in Agile. The backlog is all the works about the project. It is created and finished by the team. A cross-functional and interactive team can make a useful backlog and burn it down in a simple and effective way.

References

Agile Alliance (2013). “Guide to Agile Practices,” http://guide.agilealliance.org/guide/team.html. Accessed on 09/18/2004

Ambler, S. W., & Holitza, M. (2012). Agile For Dummies®, IBM Limited Edition. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Fowler, M., “The New Methodology,” http://www.martinfowler.com/articles/newMethodology.html. Accessed on 09/18/2004

Awad, M. A. (2005). “A Comparison between Agile and Traditional Software Development Methodologies,” www.unf.edu.  Accessed on 09/18/2004