If you are a PMO or IT department that does not actively manage its project backlog, you are at risk of:
- Strained stakeholder relations.
- Diminishing returns on project backlog investments.
- Over-allocation of resources.
Disciplined project backlog management can enable:
- Improved stakeholder relations.
- Better rate of return on your project backlog investments.
- More even workloads.
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Book NowModule 1: Create a Project Backlog Battle Plan
The Purpose
- Gauge the manageability of your project backlog in its current state.
- Calculate the total cost of your project backlog investments.
- Determine the root causes that contribute to the unmanageability of your project backlog.
Key Benefits Achieved
- An understanding of the organizational need for more disciplined backlog management.
- Visibility into the costs incurred by the project backlog.
- An awareness of the sources that feed the growth of the project backlog and make it a challenge to maintain.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 1.1 | Calculate the sunk and marginal costs that have gone into your project backlog. |
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| 1.2 | Estimate the throughput of backlog items. |
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| 1.3 | Survey the root causes of your project backlog. |
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Module 2: Execute a Near-Term Project Backlog Cleanse
The Purpose
- Identify the most organizationally appropriate goals for your backlog cleanse.
- Pinpoint those items that warrant immediate removal from the backlog and establish a game plan for putting a bullet in them.
- Communicate backlog decisions with stakeholders in a way that minimizes friction and resistance.
Key Benefits Achieved
- An effective, achievable, and organizationally right-sized approach to cleansing the backlog.
- Criteria for cleanse outcomes and a protocol for carrying out the near-term cleanse.
- A project sponsor outreach plan to help ensure that decisions made during your near-term cleanse stick.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1 | Establish roles and responsibilities for the near-term cleanse. |
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| 2.2 | Determine cleanse scope. |
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| 2.3 | Develop backlog prioritization criteria. |
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| 2.4 | Prepare a communication strategy. |
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Module 3: Ensure Long-Term Project Backlog Manageability
The Purpose
- Ensure ongoing backlog manageability.
- Make sure the executive layer is aware of the ongoing status of the backlog when making project decisions.
- Customize a best-practice toolkit to help keep the project backlog useful.
Key Benefits Achieved
- A list of pending projects that is minimal, maintainable, and of high value.
- Executive engagement with the backlog to ensure intake and approval decisions are made with a view of the backlog in mind.
- A backlog management tool and processes for ongoing manageability.
| Activities: | Outputs: | |
|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | Develop a project backlog management operating model. |
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| 3.2 | Configure a project backlog management solution. |
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| 3.3 | Assign roles and responsibilities for your long-term project backlog management processes. |
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| 3.4 | Customize a project backlog management operating plan. |
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