Myth: we need a pre-refinement for successful Sprint Planning
There is only one type of Product Backlog refinement
Product Backlog Refinement
Myth: A Pre-refinement is needed to have a successful Sprint Planning
In this “Myth or Fact” blog post we will have a look at the Sprint Planning event. What are the ingredients to make this successful? Is pre-refinement needed to make this Sprint Planning session successful? What is Product Backlog refinement in the Scrum framework? Let’s dig into this one.
This blog statement, may feel that there is some moment in the Sprint that you do refinement work for the Product Backlog Items (PBI’s). In Scrum, we have five events which help us deliver a done increment. The following five events are described in the Scrum Guide:
- The Sprint
- Sprint Planning
- Daily Scrum
- Sprint Review
- Sprint Retrospective
Product Backlog refinement is not one of the five Events in Scrum. So where do we do refinement work as a Scrum Team? Searching in the Scrum Guide, you will find it just one time, within the paragraph of the Product Backlog.
What is Product Backlog Refinement?
"Product Backlog refinement is the act of breaking down and further defining Product Backlog items into smaller more precise items. This is an ongoing activity to add details, such as a description, order, and size. Attributes often vary with the domain of work. The Developers who will be doing the work are responsible for the sizing. The Product Owner may influence the Developers by helping them understand and select trade-offs."
What we can learn from this is that Product Backlog refinement is an on-going process, not a single moment in the Sprint that we need to use to do some Product Backlog refinement. And this makes sense, because maybe you need to adjust your items at a certain moment in the Sprint, because of new (business) circumstances, new technology etc.
The other important thing we see here is that it is a decision of the Scrum Team how and when refinement is done.
- The Product Owner is the person who is accountable that Product Backlog Items are clear and are visible on the Product Backlog. And that they are clear enough so that Developers understand it to the level needed.
- The Developers refine it further into tasks and other actions, to create a Done Increment during the Sprint.
If you want to do it every day thirty minutes of your time, it is OK! You want to plan one Product Backlog refinement session of four hours every Sprint? It’s OK! It comes down to the self-managing Scrum Team. It doesn’t make sense to focus on Product Backlog Items at the bottom of the Product Backlog (depending on the size of you Product Backlog), because Scrum is all about just-in-time planning.
Refinement at Sprint Planning
Now we know that there is room for the Scrum Team to decide how and when to do Product Backlog refinement, we need to have a look at the Sprint Planning. Is it possible to do some Product Backlog refinement during Sprint Planning? Let's see what guidance we can get from the Scrum Guide:
"The Product Owner ensures that attendees are prepared to discuss the most important Product Backlog items and how they map to the Product Goal. The Scrum Team may also invite other people to attend Sprint Planning to provide advice."
Product Backlog refinement has a significant effect on your Sprint Planning. When is this Sprint planning successful? To my opinion it is successful when the Scrum Team manages to create a good Sprint Goal, enough work is refined for the first few days of the Sprint, based on empirical data what the Development Team can perform.
Summery
So let’s wrap up, we don’t need a pre-refinement moment, it is a continuous proces between the Product Owner and Developers. In order to be successful you can even do refinement at the Sprint Planning event. So yes, this is a Myth.
A successful Sprint Planning has the Product Backlog (as much refined as needed) as input, is a collaboration of the whole Scrum Team (and more people as needed) with a good Sprint Goal as an outcome.
This article has been written by our Scrum Facilitator Community member Erwin van Maren, edited by Scrum Facilitator Jasper Alblas.
As a former armed service member I switched into the online web / app development as a scrum master / product owner. My experiences and interests are very broad, but the core interests are within the fields of leadership training, coaching, Agility and Scrum, professional networking, internet, entrepreneurship, online web / app development, security, (geo)politics, international relationships and sports.
I love to empower a development team, let them grow in skills and giving team members challenging tasks and questions to think about. Therefore I use my experience in team-building within the armed services in combination with new insights that become available. I strongly prefer to work in an agile scrum way for software development. I'm working together with the team, it's the TEAM effort that makes the success!