Article
Backlog Refinement
What is Backlog Refinement?
Many Agile teams have conversations where they seek to explore high-priority work items in their Product Backlog, such that they’re ready to be worked on with little to no additional conversation. Scrum teams often refer to this kind of conversation as Backlog Refinement or Backlog Grooming, where their short-term goal is to make sure they’re prepared for the next Sprint Planning event. They may also choose to refine additional high-priority items from the backlog, to help them prefer for subsequent Sprints.
What’s the Benefit?
Backlog Refinement helps ensure that the highest priority user stories are ready to be worked on, saving time during Sprint Planning, and also surfacing unknowns, dependencies, and risks which might need to be addressed.
When?
Scrum teams often have a Backlog Refinement session around the mid-point of a Sprint, and in some cases have more than one such conversation per Sprint.
Who attends Backlog Refinement?
- Product Owner (PO)
- Scrum Team Members who will co-create the outcome
- Scrum Team members who will co-validate and test the outcome.
- Scrum Master (Optional facilitator)
Inputs
- Definition of Ready *
- Prioritized Work Items
- Roadmaps, Objectives, Goals
* Some Scrum teams have a formal “Definition of Ready” (DoR) that they agree to and revisit from time to time, which informs which attributes each work item is expected to have before it can be worked on during a Sprint. Especially for teams that have been together for a while, a shared, tacit understanding of what “ready” means for them is often sufficient, without having a formal DoR.
Outputs
- Stories meeting the Definition of Ready (DoR)
Preparing for Backlog Refinement
Related Subjects
Acknowledgments
Authored by Steve Moubray
Edited by Philip Rogers
Photo by Nong Vang on Unsplash
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