Managing Products with Agility [P2]: Managing Products with Agility / Product Backlog Management - If your Backlog is not Refined then you are Doing it Wrong

Question 1

What needs to happen more if you are getting to sprint planning and the PBIs are not sized and understood?

Answer 1

need to have had some form of refinement activity before hand!

Question 2

What info (3) do Devs need to be more confident about sprint forecasts?

Answer 2

the more theDevelopersknow about their past performance, their upcoming capacity, and their Definition of Done, the more confident they will be in their Sprint forecasts

Question 3

What is a way to measure if you have refined enough work?

Answer 3

If yourDeveloperslooks at something within the next 2 Sprints on the backlog and they don’t understand it, then you have work to do

Question 4

What things should a team keep in mind before looking at their PB before sprint planning?

Answer 4

• Dev understand upcoming work
• Team knows
  
  • past performance
  • upcoming capacity
  • DoD
• Have a working agreement between Devs and PO - Devs don’t take on work that they don’t understand or is too big to complete in one sprint

Question 5

What does ready mean for a Product Backlog?

Answer 5

Devs can select work with confidence

Question 6

How do you refine your backlog?

Answer 6

• as much as you need and no more!!
• “Product Backlog refinement is the act of breaking down and further defining Product Backlog items into smaller more precise items. This is an ongoing activity to add details, such as a description, order, and size. Attributes often vary with the domain of work.”

Question 7

As an SM, how can you facilitate the first refinement session?

Answer 7

• get theScrum Team(Product Owner,Developers, &Scrum Master) into a room with any necessary subject matter experts and we merely open the existing backlog and review it.
• Start at the top and ask theProduct Ownerif this is the next most important thing?
• If not, find something that is.
• Then have theProduct Ownerread and explain it, then discuss and add details.
• Any time theProduct Ownerdeviates from the text that is in the Backlog Item, or adds more information, stop and have someone add that info to the Backlog Item.
• Ask theDevelopersto estimate the item, “Does this look like it can fit with many other friends into a single Sprint?”.
• If the answer is no, then you get to work breaking it down, reordering in theProduct Backlog, and start refining again.
• You continue this process until theDevelopersagrees that there is enough backlog refined for the next 2 Sprints.

Question 8

How do you monitor your refinement effectiveness?

Answer 8

• During the[Sprint Planning]event, your[Developers] should be able to quickly select many Product Backlog Items that go towards the chosen[Sprint Goal] and agree that they fit.
• If at your[Sprint Review] the[Product Owner is always wanting to reject that Backlog Items are complete] then there is unlikely to be enough refinement for the Development Team to understand what they are expected to do.