A comment about a sloppy way using word, showed me that there is still a confusion about the meaning of the word “Backlog Item”. What is a Backlog Item? In Ken Schwaber original slide deck you will find that it was defined as “Deliverables, Stories, Functionality Requirements”. Oops not very clear, or?

Can I give a more clear definition? I doubt! Why? I mean, should I not be able to say very clear what a Backlog Item is? I did more than hundered trainings in the last 5 years. I should be able to do it.

… wait … why named Ken the entries in the list they called: Product Product Backlog: Product Backlog Items? Why did he not say: Requirements, or Stories. Why was he reluctant to say Stories for 3 years?

My answer is that a Backlog Item is as simple as it is an Entry in a List called Backlog.

Why do we not want to define it more closer? Because y a team needs to use the Backlog in the way it makes sense to them. Together with the Product Owner they will define for themselves how they want to construct a Backlog Item.

My practise has shown to me, that it is NOT useful to put non-business items into the Backlog. Therefore I do not allow anything else as a backlog item than descriptions of user functionality. And because I like the way proposed by Mike Cohn, I use User Stories as Backlog Items.

But this is my way: