Rock Crusher

Based on the book by Steve Adolph, Shane Hastie, and Ryland Leyton
STORY

STORY
STORY

EPIC

CONCEPT
Analyst Solution Owner

The Rock Crusher

A Lean and Agile model of backlog management
for visualizing and managing the work required to create
a steady flow of ready work for a team.
Customer Backlog Owner Team

Wishful Thinking/
Big Ideas Definitions
Funnel
SME Stakeholder
The turbulent flow of rocks is throttled
Speculative and stabilized in the funnel. The Rock
Crusher funnel shifts our mental model of
the backlog from a passive reservoir to an
It Takes a Village – One Person Cannot Do It All active learning and discovery process that
Supporting Roles: Roles which must be consulted or informed results in a stabilized and throttled flow.

Forecasted
Crushing
Crushing refines and elaborates a larger
abstract parent backlog item into smaller
A Crusher more concrete backlog items by adding
Ready What do we want to learn
and why do we need it?
verified knowledge.

Backlog Refinement Acceptance: How will we

Team collaboratively refines / crushes rocks and advises know if what we learn is
Crusher
backlog owner on the economic value of rocks. May also result correct or has a chance Crusher is a backlog item to create the
in the creation of “crushers” being added to the backlog. Waste Gate of working? knowledge required to crush rocks.
Thin Pipe Crushers make the crushing process
visible and therefore manageable

Backlog Owner Crush Ratio: Thin Pipe

The backlog owner is Thin Pipe / What Goes In Solution Increment Thin Pipe subsequent solution development
accountable for maximizing the
value created by the team, by steps for delivering solution increments
prioritizing rocks in the backlog.
Solution
Backlog Owner Team
Team is accountable for delivering on their
Analyst
The analyst is responsible for transforming
CASH commitments and pulls work through the
thin pipe to deliver a solution increment
the sometimes competing wants, hopes,
interests and aspirations of the Customer,
Stakeholder, the Initiative Owner, the Rock Crusher Thin Pipe Waste Gate
Product Manager and the contributions of
the Subject Matter Expert into a shared clear Not everything in the backlog will get done.
Analyst understanding of precisely what to build. Unallocated
Wishful
Thinking
Speculative Forecasted
Ready
(Backlog)
Develop Integrate Test Accepted Economic value drives rock priority because the
Rock Crusher has limited capacity. Many rocks
are only partially crushed and maybe not even
crushed at all. This waste is removed from the
Rock Crusher through the waste gate.
Solution Owner
The solution owner is accountable Solution Increment
for delivering a valuable solution.
Kanban Board The team pulls a ready rock to create
and deliver a solution increment
Solution Owner The Rock Crusher can be implemented using a Kanban.

Realized By Verified By
Verifiable Model
Rock Verifies Rock’s Intent
Intent

Maximize the Potential of the Backlog

Dig deeper into these concepts
Test
Specifies in the new publication, The Rock Crusher,
A Model for Flow-Based Backlog Management.
SME Customer Stakeholder Verifiable Model
Rock is a metaphor for backlog item. Rocks come in all types Order Your Copy at IIBA.org
Supporting Roles (e.g user stories, initiatives, defect fixes) and sizes. A well-
Roles which must be consulted or informed. formed rock has an intent and results in a verifiable model.