Forming the Initial Product Backlog

Here's some good news. Forming the Product Backlog is really, really easy. If you've run some Discovery Loop practices and then run User Story Mapping and Value Slicing of the resulting learning, all the hard thinking, collaboration, and alignment has been done.

Figure 11.22: Value Slices to drive the initial Product Backlog

This has been a great blend of practices and, if there was strong collaboration and a sense of alignment throughout (which is facilitated by having a strong foundation of open culture), the Value Slice Map should represent a combined, shared view of work and how it can be incrementally released.

To create the Product Backlog, we simply copy each sticky note in the top slice from left to right and place them in a single column.

Figure 11.23: The initial Product Backlog

The sticky note on the left of the top slice will be copied and placed as the item at the...