research-article

The product backlog

Authors:

Cécile PéraireAuthors Info & Claims

ICSE '19: Proceedings of the 41st International Conference on Software Engineering

Pages 200 - 211

https://doi.org/10.1109/ICSE.2019.00036

Published: 25 May 2019 Publication History

Abstract

Context: One of the most common artifacts in contemporary software projects is a product backlog comprising user stories, bugs, chores or other work items. However, little research has investigated how the backlog is generated or the precise role it plays in a project.

Objective: The purpose of this paper is to determine what is a product backlog, what is its role, and how does it emerge?

Method: Following Constructivist Grounded Theory, we conducted a two-year, five-month participant-observation study of eight software development projects at Pivotal, a large, international software company. We interviewed 56 software engineers, product designers, and product managers. We conducted a survey of 27 product designers. We alternated between analysis and theoretical sampling until achieving theoretical saturation.

Results: We observed 13 practices and 6 obstacles related to product backlog generation.

Limitations: Grounded Theory does not support statistical generalization. While the proposed theory of product backlogs appears widely applicable, organizations with different software development cultures may use different practices.

Conclusion: The product backlog is simultaneously a model of work to be done and a boundary object that helps bridge the gap between the processes of generating user stories and realizing them in working code. It emerges from sensemaking (the team making sense of the project context) and coevolution (a cognitive process where the team simultaneously refines its understanding of the problematic context and fledgling solution concepts).

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cover image ACM Conferences

ICSE '19: Proceedings of the 41st International Conference on Software Engineering

May 2019

1318 pages

General Chair:
Joanne M. Atlee
University of Waterloo, Canada
,
Program Chairs:
Tevfik Bultan
University of California, Santa Barbara
,
Jon Whittle
Monash University, Australia

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SIGSOFT: ACM Special Interest Group on Software Engineering
IEEE-CS: Computer Society

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IEEE Press

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Published: 25 May 2019

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ICSE '19: 41st International Conference on Software Engineering

May 25 - 31, 2019

Quebec, Montreal, Canada

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Cited By

Varanasi DKarre SReddy R(2024)Software Development Waste amidst COVID-19 Pandemic: An Industry StudyProceedings of the 17th Innovations in Software Engineering Conference10.1145/3641399.3641417(1-5)Online publication date: 22-Feb-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3641399.3641417
Jahan MHassan MGolpayegani RRanjbaran GRoy CRoy BSchneider KEgyed AWimmer MChechik MCombemale B(2024)Automated Derivation of UML Sequence Diagrams from User Stories: Unleashing the Power of Generative AI vs. a Rule-Based ApproachProceedings of the ACM/IEEE 27th International Conference on Model Driven Engineering Languages and Systems10.1145/3640310.3674081(138-148)Online publication date: 22-Sep-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3640310.3674081
Cha YFigueira IAyala JEdwards EGarcia Jvan der Hoek ABranham S(2024)"Do You Want Me to Participate or Not?": Investigating the Accessibility of Software Development Meetings for Blind and Low Vision ProfessionalsProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642130(1-17)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642130
Jackson VPrikladnicki Rvan der Hoek ARoychoudhury APaiva AAbreu RStorey M(2024)Co-Creation in Fully Remote Software TeamsProceedings of the IEEE/ACM 46th International Conference on Software Engineering10.1145/3597503.3623297(1-12)Online publication date: 20-May-2024
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Sharma SKumar D(2023)Product backlog optimization technique in agile software development using clustering algorithmMultimedia Tools and Applications10.1007/s11042-023-15406-w82:30(46695-46715)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2023
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