Often we become constrained in our thinking by the language we use – a good example is the use of the term “backlog” instead of “options”. Quite often if you say to someone “It’s on the backlog”, the perception is quite often that although I might not get it now, it will become available sometime. However, in reality this is often not the case – or should not be the case. If we change the wording we use, we’ll create a more accurate representation of what is actually, or should actually, be happening.
Definitions from the Cambridge dictionary:
Backlog: “a large number of things that you should have done before and must do now”
Option: “one thing that can be chosen from a set of possibilities, or the freedom to make a choice”
Commonly, the term option is used in the context of the stock market, where you can have an option to buy shares (or not). You have the choice – it’s not an absolute.
As you can see from the basic definitions above, they are quite different and the impression that they can give stakeholders, also, would be quite different.
The above definition of backlog implies a fixed scope – “must do now”. However, to truely be agile we shouldn’t be committing these kind of things up front as we’ll learn along the way and what should be done will change as we learn.
Try to stop using the term backlog, and instead replace it with the word(s) “Option” or “Pool of Options” and see what effect it has to the conversations with your customers and stakeholders. You’ll be able to defer commitments to a more reasonable point in time and have that process better understood. Additionally, you’ll likely find that you’ll have earlier conversations as to whether we should discard some options, rather than keep maintaining the illusion that something may get done.