Backlog refinement-Key to a successful Sprint

What is Product Backlog Refinement?

Product backlog refinement—in the past was called backlog grooming since it includes keeping the product backlog clean and orderly. Great refinement helps your team:

  • Avoid surprises during sprint planning
  • Reduce rework due to misunderstood stories
  • Deliver value faster, with fewer blockers


Refinement is when a team and its product owner look at the top items on the product backlog to make sure each is sufficiently well understood and small enough to be brought into the next sprint.


That means breaking down large items, adding detail, estimating effort, and generally getting your stories “ready” for the team to work on.

I like to hold the product backlog refinement meetings at the start of the current sprint to iron out any issues in the Sprint backlog and again about three days before the end of the current sprint. This gives the Product Owner sufficient time to prioritize the backlog for the next Sprint. 

Why Refine the Product Backlog?

Sprint Planning is an event to identify the Sprint goal and create the Sprint backlog. Stories identified for the current Sprint may need a deeper discussion to help the development team work on them. The Product Owner can get these stories reviewed by the Client team and be ready to answer all possible questions during the first refinement meeting of the Sprint.


In the second refinement meeting, the development team can ask questions about upcoming stories earlier, and thereby the Product Owner is given a chance to arrive at answers to any questions he or she may not be prepared to answer immediately if they were asked during sprint planning. If those questions were asked for the first time in sprint planning, and too many could not be answered, it might be necessary to put a high-priority product backlog item aside and not work on it during the sprint.

These questions do not need to be fully resolved in a backlog refinement meeting. Rather, the Product Owner needs only to address them just enough so that the team feels confident that the story can be adequately discussed during the coming planning meeting.

Backlog refinement in that sense is really a checkpoint rather than an effort to fully resolve issues. 

Who Should Attend Product Backlog Refinement?

Product backlog refinement is not an official Scrum event. It is, however, listed in the 2020 Scrum Guide as an activity that should happen during every sprint. As such, there's still no consensus on who should attend.


Although I'm generally a big believer of the whole team’s involvement, that isn't really practical for this meeting. Here’s a couple reasons why:


1. Product backlog refinement often happens every week. There is almost always someone on the team who is frantically busy during the sprint. If we make that person attend another meeting, we could risk the delivery of whatever product backlog item the person is working on.


2. A good rule of thumb is that about 5 to 10 percent of the effort in each sprint should be spent on backlog refinement. While the whole team’s involvement would be nice, not all team members may be able to participate.



How Often Should You Do It?

Most teams will either do a refinement meeting once per sprint or once per week.
 
  • Once per sprint works well for teams that like fewer meetings. Keep in mind that the meeting will be longer, though.
  • Once per week can help avoid long, draining sessions—especially if your once-per-sprint meetings are creeping past two hours.

My personal recommendation is 2 refinement meetings in a sprint. The first meeting held early in the sprint will focus on the stories of the current sprint and the second meeting held a few days prior to the end of the sprint should ideally focus on the stories which may be considered for the next sprint.

I’ve worked with teams in the past that were running 2–3 refinement meetings per week, each an hour or more. Unless your backlog is in serious disarray or your product is unusually complex, that’s overkill. 

And remember—refinement doesn’t only happen in meetings. It’s perfectly fine for a product owner and a few team members to huddle up outside the scheduled meeting to split a story or clarify details.
Keep your refinement meetings focused, lightweight, and appropriately timed—and you’ll spend more time delivering value instead of just talking about it. That’s a great way to succeed with agile.

How Do You Maximize the Value?

Maximizing the value of a backlog refinement meeting probably comes down to the same few things for any meeting:

  • Keep it as short as possible.
  • Show up prepared.
  • Encourage everyone to participate.

Remember, conversations about the product backlog are not limited to a certain time or single meeting, so anyone can participate at any time. 

When you’re refining the backlog, remember that it’s not required that all product backlog items are perfectly understood at the beginning of a sprint. The features only need to be sufficiently understood so the team has a reasonably strong chance of completing it during the sprint.


Reference: Mike Cohn ((Mountain Goat Software)

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