What is Backlog refinement or Grooming in Agile Scrum?

Product Backlog in Agile Scrum is the single source of requirements and is an ordered list of features, functions, requirements, enhancements, and fixes that emerge based on the product goal. Backlog items are dynamic and change constantly to identify product needs and are never complete. The Product Owner manages the product backlog.

Product Backlog Refinement Meeting /Grooming in Agile Scrum is a key agile practice and one of the scrum ceremonies for the Scrum team to keep the Product Backlog items refined, up-to-date, prioritized, and ready for the upcoming sprint planning. It is an ongoing activity for adding, refining, estimating, removing, re-ordering, splitting, or merging product backlog items. The key participants of this meeting are the product owner, the Scrum master, and the development team.

How to Prepare Before the Backlog Refinement Meeting?

For the product backlog refinement meeting to be successful, preparation is very important. Below is the list of items to be completed before the meeting.

1. Select target backlog items: Before the meeting, select the backlog items that need refinement and are likely to be included in the next sprint or any high-priority items that need to be worked on, in the upcoming sprints.
2. Review the selected backlog items: The selected backlog items list should be shared with the Product Team to review and gain a clear understanding of their goal and to identify known issues or questions for discussion during the meeting.
3. Communicate clear Agenda: Before the scheduled refinement meeting, communicate the agenda and goals of the backlog refinement meeting to all team members in advance to understand the purpose of the meeting and come prepared.
4. Define acceptance criteria and add relevant information: Each backlog item planned to be discussed in the refinement meeting should have all the required information and acceptance criteria defined by the Product Owner to be reviewed by all team members before the meeting.
5. Participants of Backlog Refinement Meeting: Key participants of the refinement meeting include the product owner, Scrum master, and development team. If necessary, invite stakeholders or subject-matter experts who can contribute to the refinement process. Generally, the Scrum Master facilitates the meeting and the Product Owner runs the meeting.
6. Duration and frequency of Backlog Refinement Meetings: Product backlog refinement is ongoing and a scheduled weekly or bi-weekly meeting. The duration is 2 hours or less, based on the duration of the sprint and backlog items reviewed.

What is DEEP in Product Backlog?

In Product Backlog DEEP is an acronym for Detailed Appropriately, Emergent, Estimated, and Prioritized. This is a set of guidelines that defines the characteristics of a well-defined and healthy product backlog item. During the Product Backlog Refinement meeting the selected backlog items are reviewed, refined, and updated based on DEEP principles. Below is the breakdown of these four key attributes of a DEEP product backlog.

1. Detailed Appropriately: The product backlog high-priority items have greater detail and are well-defined with all technical and detailed user stories to be well understood and able to be estimated and ready to work on. The lower-priority items will have less detail and not be ready for accurate estimating.
2. Estimated: The development team provides more accurate effort estimates for the items at the top of the product backlog. Estimates help sprint planning and capacity management. Estimates also help to forecast the amount of work the development team can accomplish in the upcoming sprints.
3. Emergent: The product backlog items are continuously evolving, and new items are added, or existing items removed or updated based on business requirements or customer needs and market conditions. It is agile and a process of continuous improvement.
4. Prioritized: Product Backlog items are prioritized and ranked higher based on the business value and urgency. Business value brings expected benefits to the customer or the business. Prioritized items will be available for forthcoming sprints to work on. So product backlog items need to be refined and well-defined with all required details, using the DEEP principles to make it accurate and ready to work for the development team.

Key objectives and activities of Backlog Refinement Meeting:

The primary objective of the product backlog refinement meeting is to create an updated list of backlog items ready for the upcoming sprint. Below are some key objectives of the Backlog Refinement Meeting.

1. Review of Previous Action Items: Initially discuss any outstanding items from the previous product refinement meeting and verify if they are addressed. If there are any outstanding issues, then set an action plan to complete them.
2. Enhance Clarity: The scrum team should have a clear understanding of the work they will be doing in the upcoming sprint. The refinement meeting enhances clarity by updating the backlog items with all the required information and details.
3. Prioritize Backlog Items: Based on priorities and dependencies the refinement meeting aims at creating an ordered list of backlog items that are ready to be added to upcoming sprints.
4. Estimate backlog items: Backlog refinement allows the development team to provide estimates based on the work effort required to complete each backlog item. The estimates can be made more accurate based on the complexity of the work after discussions and review.
5. Define or Refine Acceptance Criteria: Acceptance criteria are generally added before the refinement meeting and made more accurate during the refinement meeting. Acceptance criteria can also be added after discussion during the refinement meeting.
6. Split or Merge backlog Items: Based on the size and complexity of the backlog items, they need to be broken down into smaller backlog items. Sometimes smaller items can be merged to create a single and more complete backlog item. Both options are discussed and implemented during the refinement meeting.
7. Identify dependencies and re-order backlog items: During refinement meetings, the team identifies and discusses dependencies and re-orders the backlog items list based on the sequence of the work to be completed.
8. Discussion and Clarification: Refinement meeting focuses on clarifying any ambiguities and vagueness related to the selected backlog items. The Scrum Team ensures a clear understanding of each backlog item by discussing the purpose and scope and resolving any uncertainties.
9. Documentation and Updates: All discussions and decisions related to each backlog item considered during the backlog refinement meeting should be documented for any changes, additional information or refinement made. These updates are vital for keeping the product backlog items accurate and up to date.

Outcome of Product Backlog Refinement meeting:

The outcome of the Product Backlog Refinement meeting should be:

• The top-ranked backlog items are refined and ready for consideration during the upcoming sprint planning meeting.
• The discussed backlog items should be clear, understood, estimated and prioritized.
• All dependencies are identified and discussed for each backlog item and re-ordered based on this.
• Acceptance criteria are defined and accepted by the team.
• All queries are discussed and answered.
• Any outdated or irrelevant backlog items are removed.
• Any previous pending items are discussed and completed.

Conclusion:

Product Backlog Refinement/Grooming meeting in Agile Scrum is one of the essential Scrum ceremonies and the goal of this backlog refinement meeting is to ensure a list of backlog items ready for the forthcoming sprints. The major outcome of this meeting will be a prioritized list of backlog items that are clear, concise, estimated and ready. This refinement process promotes collaboration, understanding and teamwork to deliver value effectively within the Scrum framework.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the difference between Backlog Refinement and Grooming?

Product Backlog Refinement and Grooming are the same. Before 2013, Backlog Refinement was referred to as Backlog Grooming, but Scrum Guide dropped the term ‘Grooming’ in favour of ‘Refinement’ as the word grooming was associated with negative connotations.

How often should the backlog refinement meeting occur?

The Backlog Refinement Meeting frequency depends on the duration of the Sprint Cycle. But generally, a Refinement meeting is a scheduled weekly or bi-weekly meeting for not more than 2 hours.

Who attends backlog refinement meetings?

Product Owner, Scrum Master, Development Team (Dev Team and QA Team) and any Stakeholders as necessary.

Why it is important to run a backlog refinement session?

Product Backlog refinement session contributes to the success of agile product development. It is a single source of reference, which constantly changes, but well defined and accurate. The selected backlog items should be ready for scheduling and the backlog refinement meeting achieves this.