How do I deal with this? Client is giving me the backlog allocated in Sprints

Claire Buckley

There is a huge Product Backlog.  I know it exists.  But when I ask for it, the client, refuses to send it to me.  (I'm the Scrum Master).  We get a small cut of it every 2 weeks or so carved up into Sprints already.

Consequently, we have some devs that run out of work and my team of devs are not happy as their ability to decide what is in the sprint is taken away.

I've tried to reason with the client, but I think this is a control issue.  They also seem to want to plan everything on their side first and are getting stuck and so the Sprint Backlogs are delayed and sometimes change.  They don't see any value in consulting the dev team at the moment and I want to change this around!

Ignacio Pulgar

Tell the customer to sign a document with a disclaimer with an exemption of responsibility of any bugs and architectural inconsistencies that may arise as a result of your work with a lack of perspective on the whole picture.

If they want to work that way, that's OK as long as you are covered, and not responsible of any disasters.

Besides, the exposure to that document might make them change their opinion on the way everything is managed.