Everything You Need To Know About Backlog Gating

Often times, the product backlog transforms into a massive, unwieldy mess. All kinds of requests from various sources land up there turning it into a junkyard.

Backlog grooming, of course, is an essential process to keep the repository meaningful. However, it's important to employ a stringent process before a new feature request or enhancement even finds it way on the list of items you plan to do in the future.

This process is called backlog gating.

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Ideas are generated from various sources like customer support tickets, sales calls, competitive research, feedback surveys etc.

But you often get into a scenario where all these items live in different digital spaces e.g. some are on JIRA, or UserVoice or a starred email.

First, teams need to carve a process such that the entire organization knows that for any new request to be entertained, it needs to be funneled into a single channel or medium.

It's like a visa application center - you have to submit your passport at the central embassy for it to be considered for stamping.

Next, the request enters the backlog gating workflow which is typically owned by the Product Manager, Owner or a small committee comprising of product folks, engineers and designers.

In this process, the gatekeepers will conduct basic due diligence to assess whether the request is eligible for the backlog.

Questions like:

• Is this already on the roadmap or backlog? Cull out the duplicates
• Does it closely resemble a problem that we already are solving in another fashion?
• Is it an additional consideration on an approved backlog item that we could simply enhance?
• Is the request clear to us and do we understand the value? What problem is it solving?
• What benefit does it represent? Any positive impact on OKRs? Any negative impact?
• Does this story align with the product strategy?- Does a basic cost-benefit analysis on the story make sense?
• Is it dependent on other items in the backlog?

Once the gatekeeper(s) understand this at a high-level and the "paperwork" checks out, it's added on the backlog without a prioritization tag (added on the next grooming session).

If it's a dependent story, then it's added in the end and only activated once the primary story has been delivered.

Moreover, there is a backlog capacity that is assigned e.g. 100 items. As soon as the cap is exceeded, the gatekeepers will have to take out backlog items to add anything in.

Note: Backlog gating doesn't resolve everything though.

It makes sure that you don't bloat your repository with needless items too fast.

However, if your engineering velocity is stifled or are suffering from prioritization woes such that certain items get indefinitely stalled, then you'll hit a deadlock again.

See more: Document to Backlog Gating