Scrum Product Backlog Grooming, Refining, Estimating and Prioritizing

Scrum Product Backlog Grooming:

In order to get a good Scrum Product backlog, we must actively Manage, Organize, Administer (Groom the product backlog) the to do list.

What Is Scrum Product Backlog Grooming?

Scrum Product Backlog Grooming refers to a set of below activities:

• Creating Scrum Product backlog

• Refining Scrum Product backlog

• Estimating Scrum Product backlog Items

• Prioritize Scrum Product backlog Items

Image: Explains some specific Scrum Product Backlog Grooming tasks and how they affect the structure of the product backlog.

Prioritized Backlog Items need to be estimated to help determine their order in the backlog and to help decide whether additional refinement work is warranted.

If the priorities of the items shift depending on the business requirement, new items are created and inserted into the backlog.

In case of handling larger item, we need to refine it into a collection of smaller items.

Who is Scrum Product backlog Grooming very important?

Scrum Product Backlog Grooming is an ongoing collaborative effort led by the scrum product owner, Scrum Master and Scrum team. Ultimately decision on backlog items is taken by “Scrum Product Owner

Scrum product owners also know that by involving the diverse team members in the Scrum Product backlog Grooming, they ensure that everyone will have a clearer, shared understanding of the product backlog, so less time will be wasted in miscommunications and hand-offs. Such collaborative efforts also go a long way toward bridging the historical gap between the business people and the technical people.

Business stakeholders should allocate a quiet good amount of time to Scrum Product Backlog Grooming based on the nature of the organization and the type of project.

General rule: The development team should allocate up to 10% of its time, each sprint to assisting the product owner with Scrum Product Backlog Grooming activities. 

• Time to create backlog items, 

• Time to review backlog items

• Time to refine larger backlog items into smaller backlog items 

• Time to estimate the size of product backlog items.

When Does Scrum Product backlog Grooming Take Place?

The Scrum framework only indicates that Scrum Product backlog Grooming needs to happen; it doesn’t specify when it should happen. So "when does Scrum Product Backlog Grooming actually take place?"

Using sequential development, we try to capture a complete and detailed description of the requirements up front, so little or no requirements Scrum Product backlog Grooming is scheduled after the requirements have been approved. In many organizations these base-lined requirements may be changed only via a separate change control process, which is discontinuous to the primary development flow

As such, Scrum Product backlog Grooming during sequential development is an exceptional, unplanned, outside-of-primary-flow activity that we invoke only if we need to, making it disruptive to the fast flow of delivered business value.

Using Scrum, we assume an uncertain environment and therefore must be prepared to constantly inspect and adapt. We expect the product backlog to evolve constantly rather than being locked down early and changed only through a secondary process for handling exceptional, undesirable occurrences. As a result, we must ensure that our Scrum Product backlog Grooming activities are an essential, intrinsic part of how we manage our work.

Initial Scrum Product backlog Grooming occurs as part of the release-planning activity . During product development, the product owner meets with the stakeholders at whatever frequency makes sense to perform ongoing Scrum Product backlog Grooming.

When working with the development team, the product owner might schedule either a weekly or a once-a-sprint Scrum Product backlog Grooming workshop during sprint execution. Doing so ensures that Scrum Product backlog Grooming occurs on a regular schedule and enables the team to account for that time during sprint planning. It also reduces the waste of trying to schedule ad-hoc meeting.

Sometimes teams prefer to spread out the Scrum Product backlog Grooming across the sprint, rather than block out a predetermined period of time. They take a bit of time after their daily scrums to do some incremental Scrum Product backlog Grooming. This Scrum Product Backlog Grooming doesn’t have to include all of the team members. For example, after a daily scrum the product owner might ask for help refining a large story. Team members who are knowledgeable and interested stick around and assist the product owner. The next time, different team members might assist.

Even if teams have regularly scheduled workshops or take some time each day to look at the backlog, most teams find that they naturally do some Scrum Product backlog Grooming as part of the sprint review. As everyone involved gains a better understanding of where the product is and where it is going:-

New Prioritize Backlog Items are often created
(or) 
Existing Prioritize Backlog Items are re-prioritized 
(or) 
Deleted if they are no longer needed.

When the Scrum Product backlog Grooming happens is less important than making sure it is well integrated into the Scrum development flow, to ensure flexible and fast delivery of business value.