Put your goals in order with a Backlog

Tan Thye Chuan
2 min readSep 15, 2021

The Backlog is an ordered list of what is needed for improvement, ordered based on size, detail and priority. It is treated as a single source of work that people would use to plan Sprints in Agile communities that practice Scrum.

Use the Backlog to plan your goals

The goals or objectives in the Backlog can be repurposed to describe a future state of a product, service, or even a person, serving as a target to plan towards.

The Backlog can be used to plan long-term goals to achieve. In order to minimise risk and generate more learning cycles, it is better to fulfil (or abandon) a goal or item before moving on to the next Backlog item.

Refine your backlog, refine your goals

According to the Scrum Guide, Backlog items that can be done and accomplished within one Sprint are considered ready for selection when planning a Sprint. This level of detail and transparency is accomplished from refining the Backlog items.

Refinement is the act of breaking down and further defining the items into smaller, more precise items. This is done by continuously breaking down items, adding in more details and descriptions, making the size of an item smaller and prioritising the items.

Try out some Tools and Frameworks I’ve worked on

GdApp

GdApp is a mobile app for you to input and track your progress and habits, with the objective to gain the analytical insights and visible awareness to change and improve yourself.

Visit GdApp’s website here.

Lite Toolkit

Lite Toolkit is for you to use self-improvement and productivity tools like the Wheel of Life, Kanban Board and Retrospective Board without signing up, giving away emails or logging in.

Explore Lite Toolkit’s tools here.

Lite Agile

Lite Agile is a framework I have created for the purpose of being light and simple for individuals to adopt the Agile mindset and adapt to change.

You can read the Lite Agile Guide I have written here.

Your response and feedback is appreciated

I hope you find this article useful and should you have any questions or require any support from me, please feel to reach out to me on LinkedIn or Facebook!

--

--

Tan Thye Chuan

A Data and User-driven Product & UX Manager with a passion to fuse Self-Awareness with the Agile Mindset — iamthye.com