Overview

Definition: Product Backlog refinement is the act of adding detail, estimates, and order to items in the Product Backlog.

Length: “Refinement usually consumes no more than 10% of the capacity of the Development Team” (1)

People: Product Owner, Development Team

Outcome: Product Backlog items become more transparent through refinement and the top items are deemed ‘Ready’ for a Sprint (i.e. can be ‘Done’ by the team within one Sprint)

Benefits

Product Backlog Refinement Benefits (2, page 103, Mastering Professional Scrum)

1. Increased Transparency – adding details for what you plan to deliver, and your progress
2. Clarification of Value – outcomes of what you are trying to achieve become clearer, and helps the team to build the right thing
3. Breaking things into consumable pieces – increases flexibility for the team to meet ‘Done’ in a Sprint
4. Reduction of dependencies
5. Forecasting
6. Incorporation of learning – gained learning is incorporated into the product

Facilitation Techniques

Fishbowl collaboration (3)

• Three – five people collaborate around a whiteboard (the fish in the bowl)
• Others in the room may observe but are not allowed to speak
• If someone from outside the bowl wishes to speak they can dive into the bowl which bounces out one of the fish already in the bowl
• People can leave anytime if they are not finding it valuable
• This technique keeps the conversation small and productive

Three Amigos and BDD

• Backlog Refinement is attended by someone to represent each discipline in rotation (i.e. Three Amigos of Product, Development, Testing)
• Behaviour Driven Development is used to focus the conversation on the behaviour of the User Story
• See my talk notes

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References

1. The Scrum Guide
2. Mastering Professional Scrum by Stephanie Ockerman and Simon Reindl
3. User Story Mapping by Jeff Patton