Ranking of BL items vs. Epics

[Jeff Cox]

 

How do you handle the lack of connection in rankings between Epics and backlog items, ensuring the teams are looking at the most important Epics?

 

We should be able to rank our epics and somehow transfer this rank the BL items. 

 

In our view, the product value is in the epics  (or features) so we want to ensure this drives the BL item priority.  This seems to be a very manual process. 

 

 

JEFF C.

 

[Satish Thatte]

Hi Jeff:

Epic ranking and backlog item ranking and their inter-relationship are complex topics.  In VersionOne  Rel 12.0, epics are ranked independently from backlog items (stories).  

If I interpret your request correctly, your request is that if epic A has been ranked above epic B, then epic A's stories should also be automatically ranked above the stories of epic B.  Is my interpretation of your request correct?

Your request may make sense in some scenarios and VersionOne product team actually considered this capability during VersionOne Rel 12.0 design.

However, there are other scenarios where a user may not want to rank the stories consistent with epic ranking because doing so would not be in line with his business goals.     For example, a user may want to rank only high-value or high-risk stories higher (independent of what epics they belong to).  This kind of ranking would require a separation between story ranking and epic ranking.   

As you may see, the semantics of epic ranking vs. story ranking gets complicated as different users have different needs associated with story and epic rankings.  Some users need to have these independent rankings between epics and stories.

I have communicated your request to VersionOne Product Management team.  You may also propose it as an idea using VersionOne Idea space.

Satish Thatte

Agile/Lean Coach and Product Consultant

VersionOne

[Jeff Cox]

Satish 

 

Thanks for the response. 

 

You said:  "If I interpret your request correctly, your request is that if epic A has been ranked above epic B, then epic A's stories should also be automatically ranked above the stories of epic B. Is my interpretation of your request correct?" 

 

That is correct.  I understand that this can't be a tight coupling.    Possibly a way to force align the rankings could be considered.  In other words,  select " force rankings"  to align the backlog rank according to the Epic rankings.  After that, you can move them as needed. 

 

I will take this to IdeaSpace.  Maybe I can even get a vote or two for it!

 

Jeff

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From: Satish Thatte [mailto:Satish...@versionone.com]
Sent: Wednesday, August 29, 2012 2:06 PM
To: versiono...@googlegroups.com
Cc: Jeff Cox
Subject: Re: Ranking of BL items vs. Epics

[Joey Lei]

This thread is bit old but has a best practice for this problem statement been resolved?