What NOT to do during Product Backlog Refinement?
7 traps that we must avoid during backlog refinement
If you’ve worked with Product Backlogs, I guess you have been to at least one Backlog refinement that was a nightmare, meaning that the session led nowhere. The team was disengaged, demotivated, and not interested at all. Why does that happen? That can be for many reasons, but most of the time, it is related to the way the Product Owner conducts the refinement. But before we jump into that, let’s understand what backlog refinement is.
Product Backlog refinement is the act of adding detail, estimates, and order to items in the Product Backlog. This is an ongoing process in which the Product Owner and the Development Team collaborate on the details of Product Backlog items. During Product Backlog refinement, items are reviewed and revised. The Scrum Team decides how and when refinement is done. Refinement usually consumes no more than 10% of the capacity of the Development Team. However, Product Backlog items can be updated at any time by the Product Owner or at the Product Owner’s discretion.
The outcome of this session should be: more items in the Product Backlog are understood to a level of understanding which the team can work with them. In other words, the team has talked…
