I have been reading & learning more on Scrum. Have a question on Sprint Planning and Refinement meetings:
I was wondering why the scrum guide doesn't recognize Refinement meetings as an even if it is so vital for the Sprint?
I read in the scrum guide that product backlog refinement is not an event but an activity. It's an ongoing activity that shouldn't consume more than 10% of the development team's capacity and logically (not definitive but as a common practice) should occur before Sprint Planning. The main objective of the refinement activity is to ensure the Product Backlog items that will occupy the Development Team for the upcoming Sprint are refined (detailed, estimated and ordered) so that any one item can reasonably be “Done” within the Sprint time-box.
Since I couldn't find a definitive answer to this in the guide, I think it would be more appropriate to use the Sprint Planning event itself to include refinement activity since we are focused to plan for upcoming sprint. For example: say the Sprint planning meeting takes 4 hours for an upcoming 2 week sprint, use the first hour for refinement and identify the product backlog items that are deemed "ready" for selection for Sprint Planning. Then use the remaining hours to do the planning viz. what items can be done (Sprint Backlog) and how the development team plans to do it (plan by breaking into units of work/tasks). The distribution of hours can vary but I can see how we might not need a separate refinement meeting.
Do you think this understanding makes sense and workable based on real life experiences? Or should they both be different meetings?
Thanks,
Mohit Saving Changes...
Sort By:
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Just to comment, when you are part of an initiative where Scrum is running then you understand all you are asking for. Scrum is stated in the Scrum Guide. Because Scrum is a framework each organization has to fill it up with tools and techniques that best fits. So, all you read out of the Scrum Guide, are mere implementations that is valid to take into account but are not more than that. Saving Changes...
Refinement is an ongoing activity because new requirements and changes in the relative priority of backlog items can happen at any time during a sprint.
In situations where a PO doesn't have the time to do it on an as needed basis throughout the sprint, they might find it convenient to schedule time to do it and might use that same time to engage the team to help the team understand the "what" and "why" behind the work items.
Guess it's less significant when the refinement meeting occurs, more that it should occur. Different Scrum teams follow different approaches as to when the refinement meeting occurs. Some prefer to have it at the end of each Sprint to ensure the backlog is ready for the next sprint (prior to the next Sprint Planning meeting) while others prefer to have it more frequently viz every week for a 2 week Sprint. It's a relative time-boxed event, not mandated by the guide but necessary. Saving Changes...
Khai Ng.IT PMO | IT Project Manager| TTGROUPHanoi, Viet Nam
Product Backlog is owned by PO; he/she is chiefly responsible for refining the items in the product backlog; that is a repeated activity untill all items are implemented. PO may need help of experts or team members to do it or not; things depends on the complexity of the project and the user stories. For simple and small projects, PO will do it by him or herself, but for complex and large project, he/she may ask help from experts and team members to do it during Sprint Plannings or have separate meetings for it. I think because it is on-going activity and based on PO's selection so that Scrum does not consider it as an required event to make Scrum agile. I personally see Product Backlog refinement task happens in almost all Sprint Planning meetings even for simple and small projects. Saving Changes...
