12. Emphasis on "stop the line"

As product matures, a secret backlog is growing. The items in this backlog never seem to be as cool or interesting as the shiny new features described in the user stories of the product backlog. Where user stories tell us what we want the system to do, this secret backlog tells us all the things the system does, that we don’t want it to do… This secret backlog is our bug-list.

While implementing user stories feels like progress, fixing bugs feels stagnant. User stories end up getting all the attention and are prioritised relative to each other whilst bugs just sit there, waiting for their turn and decide their fate.

Sometimes, bug get their turn when its too late!

Why?

1. I guess because outbound folks (marketing, sales) and customers do not have enough visibility into impacts of not fixing bugs or waiting too long.
2. Bug reports are not in same format/system as user stories (product backlog), it’s hard to determine relative priorities when it feels like you are comparing apples and pears.

What to do?

1. "stop the line" strategy: as much bugs as possible should be fixed before working on user stories.
2. transparency: giving visibility about bug list with stakeholders helps everyone in understanding short term and long term impact of bugs and reduce discrepancies in perceived business value/ROI
3. integrated systems: keeping bugs and user stories in same systems helps in prioritizing them at the same time.