On 19/05/11 14:19, Peter Maydell wrote:
Sure. As I understand the idea of an agile product backlog, though, you don't necessarily do full investigation and planning on every item in it (in the way that at the moment we do full down-to-the-work-item blueprints for everything at the start of the six months); instead you can just do broad back-of-envelope estimates and prioritisations and only need to do more detailed planning as things bubble up to the top of the backlog.
-- PMM
The way I see this: It means the backlog items targeted for the next sprint/month get their work items defined in detail, whereas the remaining backlog items not yet in the radar, can get only a rough breakdown to work items. For the not detailed planned blueprints one should consider flagging any risks which may impede the work early on.
Ideally higher priority items are taken earlier in the cycle, since the cost of their delay is higher.
What comes to estimating, it ought to happen regularly - for example before the beginning of a sprint/month. Use ideal/uninterrupted hours/days for your estimates.
Cheers,