Pareto principle for PB and waste
It is believed (and emphasized by Jeff Sutherland, for example), that Scrum should deliver 80% of value by doing 20% of top Backlog items.
Isn't estimating entire backlog a waste, if you look at it from this perspective?
> Isn't estimating entire backlog a waste, if you look at it from this perspective?
Yes...if you look at it from that perspective.
However, a fully estimated backlog still represents the best-effort forecast of the total product scope. The probability that only 20% of it will actually be of value is immaterial. It would still amount to the best and most complete information that the Scrum Team can provide at the time...and forecasts derived from that information *could* be of use.
Maybe the principal waste is the amount of time used to estimate the entire backlog.
Around me, the Dev Team don't use Planning Poker for that purpose. They are able to give an estimate of the "entire" backlog" in 1/2h. Of course it is not accurate, but good enough for the PO.
Then, they use Planning Poker for discussion on the top-priority PBI.
Thanks for your thoughts on this.
> Maybe the principal waste is the amount of time used to estimate the entire backlog.
Yes, I mainly had time in my mind, when thought about a waste
> Around me, the Dev Team don't use Planning Poker for that purpose.
How do you approach it then?
I generally coach teams to do a team sort for the larger, lower priority items. I have an article which covers the technique:
https://dzone.com/articles/agile-estimation-practice
Good read. For tactics, I used similar T-shirt sizes approach, but slightly different. Instead of introducing sizes up front, I just asked to group similar items together, and once they were grouped, then sizes were assigned.
For high-speed estimation, we use "extreme quotation".