Grooming Your Product Backlog
Are You Done Yet?
You said you’d be done by now…
WTF?!?!?!?!
*image courtesy of http://www.buildsonmymachine.com/
Why Are We Having These “Done” Conversations?
Sprint work isn’t done
What’s contributing to the problem?
This Works
Sprint Planning (4 HRS) 5% workday workday
Backlog Grooming
(1 HR)workday
Team Estimation
(1 HR)workday ½ workday
Artifact Review
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
- GOAL: prepare stories for upcoming sprints- Low-fi UI prototyping- story mapping- Release planning- T-shirt sizing- Scenarios/acceptance criteria
Whole Team!
Sprint 2 Planning (4
HRS) 5%
Sprint Demo/Retrospective
Backlog Grooming
(1 HR)
It’s Not Extra Work...It’s THE Work
Backlog GroomingOutcome when you DOGroom the backlog
Impact of NOT GroomingThe backlog
Looong and inefficient sprint
planning
Loooong and inefficient standups
Missing sprint commitments
You build the wrong thing
Shared understanding
Earlier feedback
Realistic sprint commitments
You build the right thing
PANIC!
How To Get Started
Agree right now on where and when your team will do it
START DOING IT
Set a Goal for the first Session
Involve the whole team
Try it for a couple of
weeks
Tune your process through
retrospectives
BUT HOW??!?
Techniques for Grooming the Backlog
Backlog Grooming
1) Product Visioning (WHAT)- Prune the product tree- Ideation- Story mapping
3) Sprint Preparation (HOW)- Story mapping (features)- Low-fi prototyping
- Design shop- Paper prototypes
- Scenarios, BDD, ATDD- Walk the dog
2) Prioritization (WHEN)- Buy a feature- Sliding scale- Kano model- Theme screening/scoring
Use 5% of your sprint capacity to get ready for the next sprint
Keep Your Tree Pruned!
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