Product Backlog Refinement

5 minutes 5 Questions

Product backlog refinement, formerly known as grooming, involves reviewing, managing, and ordering the items in the product backlog to ensure that the most valuable features are at the top, ready for the next Sprint. It's a collaborative effort with inputs from the Product Owner, the Scrum team and…

Guide to Product Backlog Refinement in PSM I

What is Product Backlog Refinement?
Product backlog refinement is an ongoing process that involves adding detail, estimates, and order to items in the Product Backlog. This process is led by the Product Owner and the Development Team. It helps to ensure that the backlog remains organized and managed.

Why is it Important?
Proper backlog refinement helps to make sure the Development Team has clearly defined work items for the upcoming sprints. Hence, it ensures that the team can start work efficiently without any needless delay or confusion.

How it works?
During refinement, the product owner and the development team review the items on the backlog, discuss them, split large items into smaller ones, and estimate the relative effort required to complete each item. It ensures that the items are 'Ready' to be pulled into Sprint Planning.

Exam Tips: Answering Questions on Product Backlog Refinement
Remember, in an exam scenario
- The product owner is in charge of the product backlog, but this does not mean they are the only person who can update it. Development team members can also contribute under the guidance of the Product Owner.
- Refinement is an ongoing process and doesn't have a set schedule in the Scrum Guide.
- The goal of product backlog refinement is to break down items into 'sprint ready' work that can be completed within one sprint.
- Sometimes a Product Backlog includes very high-level items. These are called product backlog items (PBIs) or user stories. The Scrum Team collaborates to detail and estimate these items in further refinement sessions.

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PSM I - Product Backlog Refinement Example Questions

Test your knowledge of Product Backlog Refinement

Question 1

You, as a Scrum Master, observe that the Development Team is not fully engaged during the Product Backlog Refinement session. They express that items in the Product Backlog are too complicated and hard to estimate. What is your best approach?

Encourage the development team to actively participate in refining the backlog items by helping the Product Owner break down and simplify complex items. Suggest splitting the Development Team into smaller groups to focus on specific areas of the backlog, with the aim that smaller focused groups can manage complexity better. This approach, while promoting specialization, risks siloing knowledge and may not effectively address the root cause of the team's disengagement and the complexity of the backlog items. Propose to cancel Product Backlog Refinement sessions until the Development Team feels more confident in handling complex items. Advise the Product Owner to only include items in the Product Backlog that are immediately clear and estimable, postponing more complex discussions.

Correct Answer: Encourage the development team to actively participate in refining the backlog items by helping the Product Owner break down and simplify complex items.

The correct approach involves directly addressing the Development Team's concerns about complex and hard-to-estimate backlog items by working with the Product Owner to simplify and clarify these items. This not only ensures that backlog refinement sessions are more productive but also builds better understanding and engagement among the team members. The wrong answers either avoid dealing with the problem, postpone necessary discussions, or introduce approaches that might not solve the underlying issue of complexity in a collaborative and holistic manner.

Question 2

You are a Scrum Master for a team who has just completed their product backlog refinement meeting. However, you notice a significant confusion due to inconsistent techniques used to refine items. As the Scrum Master, which is the best way to resolve this issue?

Encourage the team to standardize refinement practices through collective brainstorming and agreement. Instruct the Development Team to follow the Scrum Master’s personal methods for backlog refinement without discussion. Allocate specific backlog items to each team member to refine independently, promoting individual ownership. Suggest shifting the focus towards increasing the velocity of the team by doubling the effort in the upcoming sprints without addressing the refinement process.

Correct Answer: Encourage the team to standardize refinement practices through collective brainstorming and agreement.

The goal of the Scrum Master is to coach and facilitate the team towards self-organization and effectiveness. The correct answer involves guiding the team to collectively agree on standard practices, enhancing alignment and efficiency. Imposing methods, encouraging isolated work, or diverting focus solely towards velocity without addressing the underlying refinement process issues do not cultivate a collaborative or sustainable approach to tackling complexities inherent in product backlog management.

Question 3

As a Scrum Master, you notice that during Product Backlog Refinement, your team often struggles with clearly defining the Product Backlog Items (PBIs) and their criteria of satisfaction. What is the most appropriate action to take in this situation?

Encourage the use of user stories and acceptance criteria to ensure PBIs are well-understood. Advise the Product Owner to make all backlog item decisions to streamline the refinement process. Organize a mandatory training session on advanced estimation techniques for improving backlog item clarity. Institute a policy where incomplete PBIs are automatically removed from the Product Backlog to incentivize clear definitions.

Correct Answer: Encourage the use of user stories and acceptance criteria to ensure PBIs are well-understood.

The correct approach emphasizes collaboration and the practical use of agile artifacts (user stories and acceptance criteria) to improve the understanding of PBIs among the team. Mandatory training sessions may not directly address the issue at hand and could be seen as punitive or disconnected from the daily work. Advising the Product Owner to make all decisions undermines the collaborative aspect of Scrum and diminishes the team's responsibility and autonomy. Removing incomplete PBIs as a policy could discourage thorough refinement discussions and lead to valuable items being overlooked or unnecessarily discarded.

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