Backlog Refinement - Friend or Foe?
Scrum should be simple. Easy to learn, tricky to master. We have a nice, easy set of 5 Events. However, Backlog refinement is not amongst them.
So why bother to refine the backlog as a team?
Can’t the Product Owner just capture everything for the team?
..and what is Backlog Refinement anyway?
Backlog Refinement for Agile teams is where the backlog (or prioritised work list) is discussed and elaborated ahead of time. The work that is going to be picked up next needs to be taken the the “Ready” state and the work further away in the pipeline is reviewed to initiate the elaboration. It helps the team to run at speed.
Despite it’s status as an optional event in Scrum, Backlog Refinement is an invaluable process as part of your team operation.
- It keeps the team focused on the longer term goal.
- It helps the P.O. to articulate the Why and to come the best solution for the How for your mission.
- It surfaces timely questions for UX, BA & visual design people to help consider the best solutions for your customers & users.
In short: it builds team knowledge & ownership, it helps to reduce waste and it delivers a vastly improved solution for your customers.
Nominally, the output of the refinement session is a groomed DEEP backlog but look a little closer. The real value is in between the lines. It is in the conversation, the relationships, the alignment and the innovative thinking that only comes from a group of minds considering a problem over time and refining their understanding of the solution as they revisit the conversation with an improved understanding of their customers and their behaviour.
…and the great trick, is that this scales and works in any space. Tech, Business, HR, Finance etc. Plant acorns to grow oak trees.
Backlog Refinement is shared and value-generating preparation for your team and in the words of Louis Pasteur "Fortune favours the prepared mind”. So please don’t take shortcuts on this one, particularly with distributed teams.