Backlog Refinement at Scale
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The document discusses backlog refinement in Scrum, emphasizing its importance in creating 'ready' Product Backlog Items (PBIs) that are testable and free of dependencies. It outlines various challenges in refining PBIs, such as understanding large items and managing dependencies, while proposing techniques like user story mapping and story storming to improve clarity and prioritization. Ultimately, the document advocates for engaging teams in the refinement process to enhance agility and effectiveness at scale.
Backlog Refinement at Scale
- 1. Backlog Refinement at Scale 27-July-2017 @lukehohmann
- 3. 2-4 WEEK SPRINT DAILY SCRUM MEETING (EVERY 24 HOURS) POTENTIALLY SHIPABLE PRODUCT INCREMENT SPRINT BACKLOGPRODUCT BACKLOG 3 Scrum is Straightforward!
- 4. 2-4 WEEK SPRINT DAILY SCRUM MEETING (EVERY 24 HOURS) POTENTIALLY SHIPABLE PRODUCT INCREMENT SPRINT BACKLOGPRODUCT BACKLOG 4 Scaling Scrum Challenges Tech Debt Release Planning Roadmap Retros Liftoffs Refining Value Based Backlogs Priorities Depend- encies Done, Done CI/CD
- 5. What is a “Ready” Product Backlog Item (PBI)? • The team understands how to deliver the PBI. • The PBI is testable. • The PBI has no external blocking dependencies. • The PBI fits within a Sprint. • All of the above. 5 POLL QUESTION
- 6. Agenda 1 What is “Backlog Refinement?” 2 Handling PBIs that aren’t understood 3 Handling PBIs that are too large 4 Handling PBIs with dependencies 6
- 8. Backlog Refinement is the art and science of creating “Ready” Product Backlog Items.
- 9. Prioritization is Not the Same as Ready! 9 New Feature User story nnn Bug Fix Epic nnn User Story User Story nnn Do These Defer These The Mushy Middle Should the PBI move up or down? Is the PBI Ready for the team? Dependencies... Too Big ... PBIs at the very top should always be ready.
- 10. We Cycle Prioritization and Refinement 10 A B C D FE New Feature User story nnn Bug Fix Epic nnn User Story User Story nnn New Feature User story D A E B nnn Bug Fix nnn User Story User Story nnn C F
- 11. One Backlog to Rule Guide Them All! 11 Team 2 New Feature User story nnn Bug Fix Enhancement nnn User Story User Story nnn PO Team 3 Team 4 Team 1 Team 5 PO PO Team 6 Distributed teams may have local POs but there is one backlog.
- 12. Smart POs Get Help! 12 New Feature User story nnn Bug Fix Enhancement nnn User Story User Story nnn PO Team 4 Team 5 Team 6 Hey PO! We have lots of good ideas and we’re eager to help create Ready PBIs. If you engage us…
- 13. Merge – Diverge – Merge Pattern 13 PO Teams, I need you to work on these epics… Teams refine PBIs using in-person and online techniques we’ll share. PO Hey, thanks… Teams store results in backlog for the PO to prioritize.
- 14. Lots of Ways to Express PBIs 14 As a <user/role/persona> I want to <goal> so that <benefit/reason> Extend “Buy a Feature” to include an XS shirt size. In other words, just say what you want!
- 15. How to Create Ready, Ready PBIs 15
- 16. Which techniques for creating Ready stories have you used? Select all that apply. • Setting context • Write a problem statement • Specification by Example • Story Rounding • Spike It • Peanut Butter Splits • Story Storming • User Story Maps • Peek Ahead 16 POLL QUESTION
- 17. Identify How a PBI Isn’t Ready 17 PBI Not Ready Not Understood? Too Big? Set Context Peanut Butter Splits Story Rounding Story Storming Dependencies Spike It Design Ahead User Story Mapping Planning Walls Specification by Example
- 18. Helping Make PBIs More Understandable 18
- 19. Setting Context As a participant in a Conteneo forum I can remove an item by dragging it off of the game board. 19 Context: In version 1.0 of the Conteneo platform you could delete an item by dragging it off the game board. In version 2.0 you can't, and several of our "power user" facilitators have complained about this. Therefore, we have this story: As a participant in a Conteneo forum I can remove an item by dragging it off of the game board. Use this technique when you’re growing rapidly to help developers with different histories.
- 20. Story Rounds (from Peter Green) Post your PBI on the wall. Hand out a bunch of cards to your team. Have each person silently write one clause of a user story and then hand the card to the left. Put completed cards in the center of the table. Keep going until the team has stopped (or there is too much laughter ;-). 20 Peter Green, CST Try it online: bit.ly/story-round
- 21. Specification by Example (from Gojko Adzic) Post your PBI on the wall. Capture all the variables for your requirement. On a white board (or wiki page) develop examples of usage with values for each variable. Show expected results of calculations and validations. To scale, the PO may bring ~3 examples for each PBI, and the teams flush out questions, make visible assumptions, and permit splitting while retaining value. Keep going until you have 10-30 examples per PBI. 21 Gojko Adzic, author
- 22. Spike It 22 Sprintn-2 Sprintn-1 Sprintn Sprintn+1 Teams do small amounts of work in these Sprints to understand a Story So that they can implement it in a future Sprint.
- 23. Helping Make PBIs Smaller 23
- 24. Peanut Butter Splits We can split stories a lot of ways. The goal is to always have a valid story. 24 Split by market segment: Which customers need which business rules? Split by inputs / outputs: Can we start with one format and add more? Split by automation: Can your user do things that you can automate later? Split by workflow: Can you convert this into a story map and implement in discrete steps?
- 25. Story Storming Post your Epic on the wall. Phase 1: Invite your team to write as many stories as possible to help decompose the Epic. Duplicates are OK – go for volume. Phase 2: Group them based on similarities and see if a workflow emerges. 25
- 26. User Story Maps Capture Workflows Goals / Tasks Stories Increasingly Better Releases
- 27. 27 Goals Tasks How we do it now How we can make it better…
- 28. 1 User Story 2 User Story Bug Fix Enhancement 4 User Story 5 User Story 6 User Story 7 User Story 8 User Story … Cut Line Quality? Sure Value? Could be zero… Quality? Sure Value? I can do …
- 29. Planning Walls 29 Product Owners manage the Y-Axis. Dev team(s) manage the X-Axis. Together, they build clarity and make the stories smaller. http://bit.ly/agile-team-planning-wall
- 30. Dependencies 30
- 31. Design Ahead 31 Sprintn-2 Sprintn-1 Sprintn Sprintn+1 Certain teams do advance work before the rest of the teams. We find this really helpful in user interface design.
- 33. Summary Backlog refinement is essential for agility Try to understand the refinement problem you’re facing Use frameworks to address the challenges at scale Include your teams – they will help if you let them! 33
- 34. Which techniques for creating Ready stories do you want to try? Select all that apply. • Setting context • Write a problem statement • Specification by Example • Story Rounding • Spike It • Peanut Butter Splits • Story Storming • User Story Maps • Peek Ahead 34 POLL QUESTION
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