Backlog refinement and team review of work-ready stories
Key Takeaway
During backlog refinement, a couple of sprints ahead, split any story that is too large to estimate with confidence and draft its conditions of satisfaction. When you assign a story, review it with the implementation team, even if the story is well written.
Backlog refinement is a planning meeting, held every 2 weeks, where a Scrum team reviews its product backlog so the highest-priority items are ready to be worked on. The team breaks work into smaller pieces, clarifies desired outcomes, and flags work that isn't ready. Stories then reach sprint planning clear and small enough for the team to commit to them.
The product backlog
The product backlog is the single source of truth for all the changes, updates, and requirements the team thinks are necessary. Besides project work, it holds support or maintenance work, nonfunctional requirements, and research.
The product owner owns the product backlog. Prioritizing its work items is also the product owner's job. The backlog gets refined constantly as the team learns new information about the product.
Detail follows priority. Higher-priority items carry more detail than lower-priority ones so that they are work-ready.