The Rock Crusher – Image from The Rock Crusher
The Rock Crusher is a flow-based model of backlog management for visualizing and managing the work required to create a steady flow of ready work for a team.
Let’s unpack that statement.
The Rock Crusher is flow-based because knowledge and work flow toward the solution instead of pooling up in the backlog. The backlog should not be a place where work goes to die.
The Rock Crusher helps with visualizing and managing by ensuring the team can see all of the work associated with deciding precisely what to build, not just the coding work
There are five crucial conceptual Rock Crusher components for managing the flow of rocks:
- The intake process ensures that all work entering the funnel is acknowledged
- The funnel, which throttles and stabilizes the turbulent flow of rocks
- The thin pipe through which the team pulls ready rocks
- The waste gate, which drains excess rocks
- The village, which is the set of collaborating roles for managing a backlog