From the course: Agile Requirements Foundations

Refining the backlog

From the course: Agile Requirements Foundations

Refining the backlog

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- Refining the backlog is an ongoing task for agile BAs, and a hefty task that requires daily attention. It involves continually estimating, analyzing, prioritizing, and breaking down stories in order to ensure that upcoming sprints have what the team needs to keep delivering. The backlog is a funnel-shaped list of items, usually in the form of user stories. Some backlog refining is done in a formal meeting called a product backlog refinement session. Then more detailed user story refinement meetings for user story details are also common. Here the team gets together to discuss and review backlog items in context. Then in the user story refinement the team works on user stories and acceptance criteria. The goal is to make sure the team has a queue of work ready to go at the right levels of detail. The team looks at the short, mid, and long-term views of the product. Backlog refining meetings should be happening every couple of weeks. And sometimes user story refinement may happen several times per week. You may also work alone at times or with others to analyze and refine user stories as a follow-up task from these meetings. Part of backlog refining is to review incoming stories and ideas from others. These are stories others submit to the team. Product owners and BAs need to determine if and where these new stories fit in to the road map and release plans. Then, the item is placed on the backlog where appropriate. If it's unknown or not fitting in to the plans, it would be normal to place it far out in the backlog as a low priority. Stories that never make it to a higher priority may eventually get removed from the backlog. It's perfectly normal for more than half of the backlog to never get worked on and delivered and this is a good thing. It's about keeping the backlog orderly and clean. It means that as thoughts evolve, we're not spending time on old ideas. It means the team is focused on the future rather than the past. The product owner is the one who ultimately ensures the future focus during backlog refinement. And the business analyst is typically the heavy lifter in all this work. Refining the backlog encompasses one of the main tasks of an agile BA in collaboration with the product owner. It sets the stage for what gets built by the team. Without this, the team could build something great but not with the user or organization really needed. The ultimate decision-maker of where things go on the backlog is the product owner, and hopefully, with a great BA to support them. Backlog refining is no small task, but put your time in and it will pay rewards with an inspiring product.

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