Backlog refinement (formerly known as backlog grooming) is when the product owner and some, or all, of the rest of the team review items on the backlog to ensure the backlog contains the appropriate items, that they are prioritized, and that the items at the top of the backlog are ready for delivery.
Who should be attending the product backlog refinement session?
The Product Backlog Refinement session must include representation from across all teams that are involved in Product Development. But it is equally important that not everyone is invited to the session. So, who all should be attending the session mandatorily? Users, SMEs etc. Anyone else for the meeting should be by invitation.
What is backlog refinement and why do you need it?
You could look at backlog refinement as a means to a mutual understanding between the product owner and the scrum team. This understanding is focused on the product, of course, and what it will or won’t do. Then, you decide the amount of effort necessary to implement, as well as the order to do it.
How to conduct a backlog refinement (grooming)?
Conducting a Backlog Refinement (Grooming) 1 Create and Refine. In preparation of the Backlog Refinement (Grooming), the Product Owner should remove user stories that are no longer relevant and create new ones based on the Scrum ... 2 Estimate. ... 3 Prioritize. ... 4 Good Reads
Who can refine items on the backlog in scrum?
The Product Owner can refine items on the backlog at any time, in or outside a meeting. The Scrum Master and Development Team Members can also update items at any time. Usually under the direction of the Product Owner.
Who Should Participate in backlog refinement?
The backlog refinement ceremony must be attended by team members with the highest involvement in the product building process: The individual who leads the meeting — product manager, product owner, or someone else. Product managers or other representatives of the product team.
Who is responsible for user story refinement?
The actually completing of writing the User Stories during the refinement is done by somebody of the development team.
When should the product backlog be refined and who should participate?
“Product Backlog refinement is the act of adding detail, estimates, and order to items in the Product Backlog. This is an ongoing process in which the Product Owner and the Development Team collaborate on the details of Product Backlog items. During Product Backlog refinement, items are reviewed and revised.
Who Should Attend sprint refinement?
Who Attends the Events? Attendance at a backlog refinement event is ideally the entire Scrum Team, including the Product Owner, the Scrum Master, and Development Team. There may also potentially be one or two stakeholders, if subject matter expertise is needed.
Should Scrum Master write user stories?
Anyone can write user stories. It's the product owner's responsibility to make sure a product backlog of agile user stories exists, but that doesn't mean that the product owner is the one who writes them. Over the course of a good agile project, you should expect to have user story examples written by each team member.
Who prepares backlog?
Who is responsible for maintaining the product backlog? The Product Owner (PO) “owns” the product backlog on behalf of the stakeholders, and is primarily responsible for creating it.
When should you do backlog refinement?
I like to hold the product backlog refinement meetings three days before the end of the current sprint. This gives the product owner sufficient time to act on any issues that are identified.
How often should a team conduct a backlog refinement?
If the team is working a one-week sprint cycle, running a backlog refinement meeting every week is a recommended practice. On the other, if you are working on a two-week sprint cycle, running these meetings every alternate week should be considered.
Is backlog refinement a Scrum ceremony?
Because requirements in Scrum are only loosely defined, they need to revisited and clearly defined before they come into the Sprint. This is done during the current sprint in a ceremony called Product Backlog Refinement.
Who needs to attend backlog grooming?
Who needs to attend a product backlog grooming session?The backlog grooming session leader (product owner, product manager, project manager, Scrum master, or other team member)The product owner or another product team representative.The delivery team or a delivery team representative.More items...•
Does Scrum Master need to attend refinement?
Ideally, a scrum master doesn't need to be in a backlog refinement meeting at all. In a mature scrum team that has deep experience working in Agile ways and within the scrum framework, the product owner would meet with the development team and seek their help to prioritise the work that needs doing.
Who does backlog refinement in agile?
The Product OwnerBacklog refinement is an ongoing activity. Not just for the Product Manager, but for the entire team. The Product Owner can refine items on the backlog at any time, in or outside a meeting. The Scrum Master and Development Team Members can also update items at any time.
What does 10% of backlog refinement mean?
It means refining the backlog continuously AND meeting to refine together.
Is backlog refinement an event?
Backlog refinement is a process, not an event. There’s a common misconception that backlog refinement is another event that can be timeboxed for an hour at the end of the Sprint. And we get it. Agile is governed by a set of ceremonies or rituals that take place at specific times.
Create and Refine
In preparation of the Backlog Refinement (Grooming), the Product Owner should remove user stories that are no longer relevant and create new ones based on the Scrum Team’s discoveries from the previous sprint.
Estimate
Once the Scrum Team has refined the feature set, they should begin assigning estimates to the user stories and correcting those for any existing in light of newly discovered information. However, everyone (i.e.
Prioritize
Before the Backlog Refinement (Grooming), the Product Owner should conduct some informal backlog refinement with their subject matter experts (SMEs) and stakeholders to affirm they are focusing on the user stories with the most important business value.
Good Reads
These are good references for conducting a Backlog Refinement (Grooming):
What is product backlog refinement?
As stated earlier ,the purpose of Product Backlog refinement is to get Product Backlog items in a ready state. This means that an item should be small enough to be picked up in a Sprint. This may sometimes take some creativity to achieve.
How much time does a Scrum team spend on refinement?
Refinement usually consumes no more than 10% of the capacity of the Development Team. In practice, this means that most Scrum Teams plan three time slots of each one hour, throughout the sprint where they spend time with the Product Owner and stakeholders.
Should product owners spend less time on writing acceptance criteria?
A Product Owner should spend less time on writing acceptance criteria and more time on frequent inspection and adaption when the item is in development. From my experience this should be enough to get started with product Backlog refinement.
Is backlog refinement difficult?
Product backlog refinement would be a lot less difficult and time-consuming, if everyone involved agrees that an estimation is by default incorrect. It doesn’t matter which technique you apply. If you cannot get past that point, any technique will result in the same frustration.
What is the most important entity for product backlog refinement?
Participants or rather people who attend the session are the most important entity for Product Backlog Refinement. It needs to be an organized affair, first and foremost. The session has to be scheduled and the same should be informed to the participants beforehand, in a planned manner.
What is product backlog refinement?
What is a Product Backlog Refinement? It is the process of reviewing the Product Backlog by the Product Development Team, of items that are not part of the ongoing Sprint, to make certain that all the items maintained in the Product Backlog are relevant, are prioritized, and the top items are ready for delivery.
What is the rule for a product backlog?
The rule states that: 20% of the Product Backlog items should be always almost ready for delivery. 30% of the stories should be in a phase where there is enough information though detailing needs to be done.
Why is refining the product backlog a scheduled process?
The reason behind refining the Product Backlog as a scheduled process was felt by Project Teams and Product Owners when it was perceived that if the refinement sessions are not treated as open-for-discussion and an open-ended forum, there are no effective results derived.
Why is refinement important?
The purpose of refinement is to ensure that the continuity between user expectation and market feedback and project deliverance is always maintained. It is also important to complete the Product Backlog tasks on priority. The objective is also to keep the Product Backlogs populated with relevant tasks to-do, which is because, in its basic nature, ...
Is product backlog meeting chitchat?
One thing is for sure that the Product Backlog Refinement meetings are not meant for chitchat or time pass. Neither should the sessions be for getting clarity on other inter-team issues. This session should focus completely on ideas refinement. Therefore, it is essential to come prepared to the meeting.
