Before we can understand the Product Backlog Refinement, it is important to remember the role of the Product Owner. The most important task of the Product Owner is to make sure that the Scrum Team is working on the high priority items in the backlog at all times. Also, it is the Product Owner’s responsibility to assign priorities to the items in the Sprint as well as the Product Backlogs.
Many teams schedule a meeting near the end of the Sprint to make sure that the backlog is in order before the next sprint. This is also known as the Product Backlog Refinement meeting.
Here are some of the important points to remember about the Product Backlog Refinement meeting,
- Add details and estimates to each backlog item
- Revise the order of backlog items if needed
- Estimates are usually done in sprint planning meeting but can be revised later too
- Collaborative effort between development team and product owner
- Focus is on the product backlog and not the sprint backlog
- The meeting is scheduled 2-3 days before the next sprint so that the Product Owner can run through the changes in priority with business stakeholders
- Teams generally spend less than 10% of their time in Product Backlog Refinement
Check more articles on Agile