Delivery
Backlog refinement agenda
A ninety minute structure covering the current Product Goal, what changed since the last session, and the items nearest the top that are not yet ready for selection.
What it is
Refinement is the work of making Product Backlog items ready before a Sprint starts. The Scrum Guide describes it as an ongoing activity rather than an event, which is why it carries no timebox of its own, and that is exactly why many teams never get to it. Work with no slot in the calendar loses to work that has one.
This agenda gives refinement a shape without turning it into a requirements meeting. The team spends the opening minutes on the Product Goal and what has changed, works down the items nearest the top, then names what still needs work. The Product Owner orders the backlog beforehand, because a session that starts by deciding what to look at rarely gets to look at anything.
Ready is a local definition. Some teams want acceptance criteria and a size, others want only that everyone can describe the problem. The agenda leaves that to you and simply asks the question out loud at the end.
When to use it
- Items arrive in Sprint Planning without enough detail and Planning runs long as a result.
- Your team refines whenever somebody remembers, and it shows in the estimates.
- A new team is forming and needs a repeatable way to prepare work.
- You want the Product Owner and the developers looking at the same items before the Sprint rather than during it.
What is in it
- Before the session, 10 minutes of your own time
- 0 to 10 minutes. The Product Goal and what changed
- 10 to 20 minutes. Items that came back
- 20 to 75 minutes. Item by item
- 75 to 85 minutes. Ready check
- 85 to 90 minutes. What needs work before next time
The template
Product Goal in force [one sentence] / Facilitator [name] / Present [names] / Timebox 90 minutes
Before the session, 10 minutes of your own time
The Product Owner orders the Product Backlog and picks the six to ten items nearest the top that are not yet ready. Paste them into the item table below. Refinement is where a team asks questions about items, not where it discovers what the items are.
0 to 10 minutes. The Product Goal and what changed
Read the Product Goal aloud. Then name what has changed since the last session, so that nobody spends the next hour refining an item that no longer matters.
- What we learned from the release
- What changed in the market, the contract or the constraints
- Items that have moved up or come off the list, and why
10 to 20 minutes. Items that came back
Anything refined in an earlier session that the Developers could not select, with the reason it was not ready. An item that comes back twice needs a decision rather than a third discussion.
20 to 75 minutes. Item by item
Roughly eight minutes an item. The Product Owner reads the item and the outcome behind it. The Developers ask until they can size it. Record what is still unknown in the third column rather than guessing at it in the room.
| Item | Ready to select | What we still do not know | Who will answer, and by when |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bulk seat import from CSV | Yes | ||
| Invoice history page | No | Whether finance needs the credit notes in the same list | J. Whitaker, 11 Sep |
When an item takes more than ten minutes, stop and put it on the list at the bottom. A single item that eats half the session is the most common way a refinement meeting fails.
75 to 85 minutes. Ready check
Read the top of the Product Backlog back. Confirm there is enough refined work for the next Sprint Planning, and say plainly if there is not.
85 to 90 minutes. What needs work before next time
Name the items that need a conversation, a design or a spike outside this meeting, each with an owner. Nothing here is a commitment, it is a note of who is picking up the question.
Refinement is an ongoing activity rather than a Scrum event, so the agenda is a convenience and not a rule. If the team is already answering these questions as items come up, drop the meeting and keep the ready check.
Questions people ask
- Is refinement a Scrum event?
- No. The Scrum Guide lists five events and refinement is not among them. It is an ongoing activity the Scrum Team carries out, and booking a slot for it is a choice teams make for themselves.
- How much time should it take?
- The figure usually quoted is up to ten percent of the Sprint. Ninety minutes suits a two week Sprint for most teams, and the number matters far less than whether items leave in better shape than they arrived.
- Who needs to attend?
- The Scrum Team. Stakeholders come when an item needs them and leave afterwards, because a room full of observers turns questions into presentations.
- What if we finish early?
- Stop. Refinement that keeps going once the top items are ready starts producing detail for work the team may never take.