Taking a real picture

From my experiences, backlogs are important to the Agile process for a variety of reasons, but the most important purpose is to provide a common medium for what the team should be focused on and in what order.  A backlog should reflect customer value, since the backlog has been derived from the customer (in theory).  Often, side projects and corporate initiatives skirt the backlog, creating contradictions in focus.  In Agile Estimating and Planning, Cohn describes several problems that occur when focus is compromised.  First, when team members are forced into a multitasking situation, productivity falls as switching amongst tasks becomes a burden.  In addition, the ability to prioritize is quickly lost when initiatives run parallel to the backlog.

One solution we often debate is to push these parallel objectives into the backlog and prioritize them with everything else.  The difficult thing about doing this is rationalizing the customer value in these side projects; however, the exercise alone will be well worth the effort.  The team may determine to that the side projects do not result in something real to the customer and/or increased revenue, and they may ultimately lower the priority.  In other cases, the benefits of implementing an initiative may be realized by discussing the customer impact and subsequently estimating the cost.  In either case, when these items are listed as “overhead” and left out of the backlog, there is a greater chance the team’s productivity will be lower in both real and perceived terms.  The hit to real productivity occurs due to a lack of focus; however, the perceived productivity will be lower because the list of items accomplished will be much shorter since the overhead items were never listed in the first place.