#Work queue how to

As the Team takes a number of items off the Work Queue, space is freed to add an equivalent amount of work back onto the Work Queue. In other words, the number of items on the Work Queue is limited to how many can be accomplished in a fixed number of iterations. The Product Owner can manage the size of the Work Queue by deciding how many iterations of future work are allowed on it. If someone suggests something be added to the Work Queue, the Product Owner must, of course, take that under advisement and collaborate with the suggestor, but is not obligated to add the suggestion to the list. The Product Owner acts as a gate to the list: only those things that reasonably contribute to the goal and which are relatively immanent in implementation should be added to the Work Queue. As such, it is advisable to keep the list short. The Work Queue is a queue of work in process (WIP) that is built up in front of the people who are doing the work. Items that are completed are removed from the list, and do not need to be archived or recorded anywhere else, nor is it necessary to save versions of the list as it is changed. It is changing throughout the entire time that people are working towards the goal. If someone doesn’t know what is meant by an item, then work on that item should halt until the Product Owner can clarify.Īt no time is the Work Queue “frozen” or finalized. The Product Owner is responsible for answering any questions that may arise about the work as it is progressing. As well, the Work Queue should always be in a state of readiness such that the top items are ready to be selected for work. All of these tasks can be performed at any time. Ongoing management of the Work Queue consists of removing completed items or items that are no longer needed, adding new items as they are discovered, merging or splitting items as more is learned about them, and reprioritizing items. The list doesn’t have to be perfect or complete… you only need enough on the list to allow the work to start. Get the assistance of the Process Facilitator to keep on track. In advance, allocate a fixed amount of time to draft the Work Queue… and don’t spend any more time on it than that. Don’t worry about any details about how the item will be accomplished, who will do it, when it will be done, dependencies with other items, or technical or conditional details.ģ. Keep the Work Queue simple by focusing on point-form high-level descriptions of the items in the list. (See “ The Horizon of Predictability” for more information about this.)Ģ. Don’t add items that are uncertain or will be done far in the future.

Keep the Work Queue small by recording only high priority items that need to be done immediately. The time spent on creating this initial version should be minimized using three techniques:ġ. The initial creation of this Work Queue is a simple process: based on the goals to be attained, and based on an other factors that are relevent, the Product Owner drafts an initial version of the Work Queue. The Product Owner is responsible for creating and managing the Work Queue. If iterations are being used to plan work, then the Work Queue is updated every iteration. The number of items on the list that are being worked on simultaneously will depend on the capacity of the people doing the work. As an item on the list is completed, it is removed from the Work Queue. One or more of the items from the top of the Work Queue are selected to be worked on. The Work Queue is constantly maintained by the Queue Master so that it maintains the above mentioned qualities. Ideally, it is created before work towards the goal is started, but often Agile Work will be adopted for an ongoing effort, in which case work has already started. The Work Queue is initially created after the overall goal is determined. The place of the Work Queue in the process is very simple. The person holding the Product Owner role manages the list. All items on the Work Queue contribute directly to an overall goal. The list is prioritized so that the item on the top of the list is the single most important thing to get done, with items below that being successively lower priority.

#Work queue how to

The list consists of brief descriptions of what to deliver, not how to do it.

The Work Queue is a list of work to be done by a person, team, organization or community. This article details the use of the Work Queue. The Work Queue is like a carefully managed To-Do list. This is very similar to the Scrum Product Backlog but there are some differences too. Agile Work requires only a very small number of simple “artifacts”.