A design backlog for your ideas
I’d like to jot down some things I’ve learned over the course of the year as a work newbie. Here’s #4:
4. Create a backlog for all the things you need to do, then prioritize them
At work, my project ran on an Agile development method called Scrum.
Scrum is a methodology for software development, which helps the team get visible, working results every 2~3 weeks.
This method is great for the prototype-driven attitude, where the product needs to work first, and the rest of the details can be tuned.
This method gets products out to the market fast, and works in the software industry where products can be updated after deployment.
Anyways, Scrum comes with predefined rules, and there are even books written about how to carry out this process.
One of the rules that turns out to be useful in general daily life as well as product development, is the use of the Product Backlog.
A backlog is a list of everything you know you have to do, ordered by priority.
Now, this idea of a prioritized list is useful in life, when you have millions of different things swarming around in your head, but together, they just make noise.
1. Get a text-editor, or Post-Its, and write each of your to-do items down as a brain dump.
2. You should be satisfied to have untangled the various ideas in your head
3. Now, order these individual tasks by most to least important.
4. Focus on your life for the next week or two. How much time will you have available to do things on this list?
5. Estimate how long each of your tasks will take.
6. Commit yourself to the top tasks, and don’t commit to more than you have time for.
7. At first, your estimation of tasks might be a bit off, because there’s always the unexpected, or a seemingly simple task may snowball into something big. As time goes by, you will learn how to “chunk” tasks better, into manageable bits.
If you’re at all like me, with a “divergent” though pattern (likes to spread out ideas and brainstorm, but isn’t really good at choosing just one), then this prioritization method can help a lot.
Do you ever get that tingling feeling of adrenaline rushing through your body, when you realize that you’ve set yourself up to do more than you can possibly do in a given amount of time? Well, using the estimation process, you don’t have to feel rushed or nervous about the amount of time you have. I’ve learned that that tingling feeling, no matter how exciting it can feel at times, isn’t a good thing. It usually turns out to be a sign that you won’t be done on time.
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Tags: agile, process, project management, scheduling, scrum
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