- Definition. 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 ...
- Also Known As. ...
- Expected Benefits. ...
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- Related Agile Alliance Resources
How to groom a backlog?
What are the steps of backlog grooming?
- Organize with categories. Group backlog items by common characteristics, such as a specific theme, area of your product, or size.
- Analyze backlog items. With a sustainable structure in place for reviewing new features, you can now analyze the individual features in your backlog.
- Score based on strategy. ...
- Drive consensus around priorities. ...
How to hold an effective backlog grooming session?
- Writing new user stories, a process we outline in the post, Our Approach to Developing User Stories.
- Refining and reprioritizing previously written user stories and breaking them down into smaller stories, if needed.
- Redefining acceptance and testing criteria.
When should product backlog grooming take place?
- Detailed Appropriately — User stories and other items in the product backlog that will be done soon need to be sufficiently well understood by cross-functional teams. ...
- Estimated — Backlog items at the top should include an accurate estimation of the work needed to deliver them. ...
- Emergent — A product backlog changes over time. ...
How to run a backlog grooming session?
- Focus discussion on exploring unknown dependencies, execution risks, and work sequences. ...
- Set a ratio of 10%:80%:10%. ...
- It’s okay to have less experienced engineers and designers lead backlog refinement. ...
- It’s okay if you don’t estimate effort/time. ...
- Assign work to yourself. ...
- Delete old stories in the backlog. ...
What is story grooming in Agile?
During grooming, Agile teams break the features into stories and split them further. After that, they perform estimation in story points, and the aim is to get to a reasonable estimate. It is also essential for the PO that he could provide enough work for the team to continue in next 3-4 sprints.
What is a grooming meeting?
Grooming (or refinement) is a meeting of the Scrum team in which the product backlog items are discussed and the next sprint planning is prepared. Product grooming is critical in product management because it means keeping the backlog up to date and getting backlog items ready for upcoming sprints.
Who grooms the backlog in Agile?
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.
WHAT IS backlog grooming in kanban?
Product Backlog Grooming or Refinement is defined in the Scrum Guide as, “the act of adding detail, estimates, and order to items in the Product Backlog. This is an ongoing process in which the PO and the Development Team collaborate on the details of the Product Backlog items.”
How do you perform backlog grooming?
Backlog Grooming Best Practices You Need to KnowEliminating user stories that are no longer relevant or needed.Developing and adding new user stories based on changing customer needs.Reprioritizing user stories for the next sprint.Providing estimates for stories.More items...•
Why is backlog grooming important?
It increases efficiency with the team. Perhaps the most important reason to do backlog grooming is that it helps keep your team moving forward. A groomed backlog means increased productivity. User stories are already well defined, so there's no need for in-depth discussions that cause delays by external dependencies.
What is the purpose of grooming?
Grooming is an open discussion between the development team and product owner. The user stories are discussed to help the team gain a better understanding of the functionality that is needed to fulfill a story. This includes design considerations, integrations, and expected user interactions.
Is grooming part of Scrum?
Backlog grooming and sprint planning are important for the scrum team. The purpose of sprint planning is for everyone to agree on a goal for the next sprint and the set of backlog items to achieve it. Backlog grooming sessions are a critical part of agile software development with Scrum.
WHAT IS backlog grooming vs sprint planning?
Just as in life, 'grooming' is the process of cleaning and beautifying. In this case, backlog grooming refers to the sprint at hand. In practice, agile backlog grooming keeps your backlog updated and relevant, while getting the entire backlog ready and refined for the upcoming sprint.
Who leads backlog refinement?
During Backlog Refinement (Grooming) the Scrum Master facilitates as the Product Owner and Scrum Team review the user stories at the top of the Product Backlog in order to prepare for the upcoming sprint.
What is refinement in Scrum?
In Scrum, Backlog Refinement is an ongoing process in which the Product Owner and the Development Team collaborate to ensure that items on the Product Backlog: are understood the same way by all involved (shared understanding), have a size estimate for the (relative) complexity and effort of their implementation, and.
What is the difference between Scrum and Scrumban?
Scrum is best for projects that need to charge forward and be delivered quickly. Kanban is best for ongoing projects, such as providing a service. Scrumban is best for projects that have both product and support features.
What is backlog grooming?
Backlog grooming, (or backlog refinement) is when the product owner the rest of the development team revisits items on the product backlog to make sure that the backlog contains the right items, that they are prioritized.
How to groom a backlog?
In terms of practical outcomes, backlog grooming meetings often result in: 1 A re-prioritization of user stories in the backlog 2 The splitting of large or nebulous user stories into smaller, more actionable ones 3 The addition (or removal) of user stories based on new information 4 The addressing of any questions from across different teams 5 The assurance that user stories are ready to be worked on in upcoming sprints
Who should attend backlog grooming sessions?
Because backlog refinement falls outside of the formal meeting structure suggested by the agile methodology, these sessions can take different forms from office to office.
Why is backlog grooming necessary?
Because your backlog can quickly become a wish-lists of nice-to-have features, it’s sometimes necessary to undergo somewhat of a reality check — and that’s exactly what backlog grooming can do.
Is it a good idea to bring too many people into a backlog grooming meeting?
To keep the session focused, it’s generally not a good idea to bring too many people into backlog grooming meetings. But representatives of core teams — product managers, product owners, and QA, and so on — should be present. You may also have heard backlog grooming referred to as ‘backlog refinement’ or ‘story time’.
What is backlog grooming?
Backlog grooming meetings (also known as backlog refinement sessions) are a recurring event for agile product development teams. Learn how to prepare for these meetings and 5 tips to run them effectively.
Why do we have backlog grooming meetings?
Backlog grooming meetings are an essential effort if you want to improve both the speed and efficiency of projects, you want to reduce scope creep, and want to increase the development teams’ understanding of project deliverables. Whether you call it a backlog grooming agenda, meeting, product backlog refinement meeting, or storytime session, Fellow has created a definitive guide for you so that you can get the most out of your backlog refinements.
Why is backlog refinement important?
Another major purpose of backlog refinement is to keep the backlog populated with initiatives that are relevant .
What is backlog in product development?
Let’s start by keeping it simple… In development, a backlog is essentially a list of things that needs to be done, including new features, bug fixes, improvements, changes to existing features, and other product initiatives . The product team must prioritize this backlog and deliver on the items on the list in order for a product to strategically move forwards and to ultimately be successful.
Why is backlog important?
When your backlog is refined, it keeps your whole product team up to date because it supports effective conversations and allows your team to be on the same page when it comes to any user insights, new features, bugs or any other product-related updates.
Who takes charge of agile backlog grooming?
If you’re using an agile methodology, it wouldn’t be uncommon to see a project manager, scrum master or another team member take charge of an agile backlog grooming session as well.
Why does productivity increase when backlog is refined?
Productivity increases when your backlog is refined because the product owner, product manager and project manager need to spend less time on the backlog and more time planning sprints. A groomed backlog is going to support the company to keep moving forwards.
What Is Backlog Grooming?
In agile systems like scrum, teams engage with work in discrete units of time that they call “sprints.” At the start of each sprint, the team picks some list of work of the backlog, which is the repository of all answers to the question “What can we work on?” The team commits to finishing work within the sprint, answering the question “What will we work on?”
What Should We Work on During Backlog Grooming?
These meetings bloat, often taking up 90+ minutes of time from every developer, product manager, and project manager that works with the team. It seems like it should go without saying, but this isn’t a great idea! So, let’s talk about what your team needs to accomplish during their backlog grooming meetings.
What Is a Backlog?
Before we can talk about backlog grooming, we first need to talk about the noun in that phrase. What exactly is a backlog?
What Is Backlog Grooming?
Backlog grooming is a process where the team meets to review, refine, and prioritize backlog items. Once this is done, high-priority items will then be escalated to the sprint backlog.
How Is Backlog Grooming Done?
Now, let’s dive a little deeper into backlog grooming execution. The process is relatively easy once you understand the key actions involved.
What Is a Backlog?
A backlog is a prioritized list of items that agile teams need to work on in each sprint to meet business goals.
What Are the Types of Backlogs?
There are various types of backlogs – again, depending on the nature of the business – but agile teams typically handle two types of backlogs: the product/project backlog and the sprint backlog.
How to prioritize sprint backlog?
Assign accurate prioritization to your backlog items to help you decide if they are worth escalating to the sprint backlog. The standard prioritization levels are high, medium, and low. But you can adjust these to better fit your team’s operations. To prioritize accurately, consider factors like ship value, urgency, business goals, stakeholders’ interests, and product/project strategy.
Why do you need to involve the right people in your backlog grooming session?
Involve the right people in your backlog grooming session so that every decision made is transparent and understood.
Why is it important to refine backlog items?
Refine your backlog items with as much information as you can to provide clear context to the team who will be taking on the work. It’s important that data such as deliverable specs, due date, instructions, and requirements are stated properly for each item. Refining also means breaking down big items and initiatives into smaller, more doable tasks. You need to be realistic when distributing workload.
What is backlog grooming?
Backlog grooming, also known as “backlog refinement,” is the process of prioritizing and categorizing items in an individual or group’s backlog list for future execution.
What does it mean to groom a product backlog?
By continuously “grooming” your product backlog, you get a more accurate picture of what you should be focusing on, which means you’re able to develop better products faster and avoid wasting resources.
Why is product backlog refinement important?
Product backlog refinement is crucial for any product team, as it helps you make sure the backlog stays relevant throughout the entire lifecycle.
What is the first step in backlog grooming?
The first step in backlog grooming is to identify all the pending requests in your backlog — the list of work items that have been created from previous sprints.
How long should a backlog session last?
This rule states that backlog refinement sessions should take no longer than 20% of the team’s capacity, last for no more than 30 minutes, and be limited to 50 story points.
What is product backlog?
As a reminder, the product backlog is a list of tasks or business requirements that need to be completed during the project. It is predominantly used within the Agile framework, Scrum, where work is accomplished in short iterations known as “sprints.”
What is the goal of grooming domain models?
For instance, if you are grooming domain models, the goal might be “to agree on the central concepts of the application domain” or “to define candidate classes for user stories.”
Why is it important to groom backlog?
Grooming your backlog at planned intervals, you keep the backlog aligned with the changing stakeholder priorities. It’s an intrinsic aspect of dealing with the fuzzy uncertainty of defining a new software system.
What is product backlog grooming?
As defined in the Scrum Guide, product backlog grooming or refinement is an ongoing process of validating requirements. A backlog is a document where all the requirements are collected and managed. The requirements come in the form of use cases or user stories. Some tasks performed during backlog grooming are:
What are the grooming meeting deliverables?
The Product Owner adds new information that popped up during the session. The PO may have to re-order the backlog priorities given the newly obtained details. Finally, the PO seals the deal with the stakeholders updating them of any changes and obtaining their approval.
How does backlog prioritization work?
Backlog prioritization works on the principle: The lower the order of the item, the fewer details it needs. So, a Product Owner must ensure that the prioritized user stories contain all the relevant information behind those stories, including acceptance conditions that must be passed in order for the story to be considered “Ready.” That’s necessary for the team to better understand each user story and as a result – make more accurate estimations.
Why is backlog maintenance necessary?
A backlog requires constant maintenance because of the volatility of needs, priorities, and dependencies that will inevitably emerge. So, before the grooming session, a Product Owner must. make sure that those with the highest priority contain all necessary details.
When does a backlog refinement meeting take place?
The backlog refinement meeting takes place before the Sprint planning. Without a properly-groomed backlog, the planning session won’t be as productive as it could have been.
How long does Scrum last?
Scrum, one of the most popular Agile frameworks, suggests building software in iterations, aka Sprints, which last from two to four weeks. As a result of each Sprint, the team releases a product increment. Added to one another, increments eventually make up a complete software application. Scrum roles include a Scrum Master, a Product Owner (PO), ...
What is a Scrum backlog meeting?
Scrum Backlog Refinement (Grooming) Meetings aim to keep the Product Backlog up to date. So the Product Backlog reflects the best know-how and understanding of the Scrum team about the ongoing Scrum project.
How to improve backlog refinement?
Here are our other suggestions to improve the outcomes of Backlog Refinement Meetings: 1 Ensure Cross Team Participation, which means you identify the dependencies as early as it is possible, 2 Size User Stories Correctly, which means all user stories can result in a shippable product increment within one single Sprint, 3 Prioritize User Stories, which means you deliver immediate value to end-users, enable quick wins, and make them happy, 4 Estimate Like a Pro, which means you obtain actionable inputs for reliable release planning, 5 Identify Dependencies, which means you pull required teams and resources on board to make your project a success, 6 Uncover Risks, which means you avoid tedious surprises during the later stages of your project.
How often do backlog refinements take place?
Scrum Backlog Refinement meetings can happen on-demand or scheduled basis up to two times a week, 30 minutes each session. The Scrum Team, the Scrum Product Owner, and the Scrum Master participate in these meetings.
Is there a book about how to raise your salary with Scrum?
It is NOT a book about how to raise your salary with Scrum's help. However, it will give you the know-how and negotiation power of game-changers, which will help you radically increase your position and income.
Is there a book that repeats the dry Scrum theory?
It is NOT another book that repeats the dry Scrum theory. However, it will help you get a lot better understanding of the practical use of the Scrum theory. (Even if you are not or minimally experienced in Scrum right now.) It is NOT a book about how to raise your salary with Scrum's help.
