Backlog Grooming is just one of the important phases in the product development cycle. In this phase, Inspect and Adapt are used to prioritize backlog items by order of value, arrange them by release planning, and uncover hidden risks.
Backlog Grooming is a team activity where everyone on the Scrum Team has an opportunity to review, inspect and adapt the product backlog in order to maximize value. Backlog grooming will indicate how much work can be obtained from the Product Owner during a Sprint Planning meeting.
The main goal for this phase is to get a clear understanding of what we are going to build by prioritizing requirements with the highest value. It also gives you a chance to change direction or trim/add features before investing more effort into building something that doesn't fit.
It's highly recommended to have a regular Backlog Grooming session, ideally 1-2 hours every Sprint Planning meeting, but there are cases where this may not be possible - you need to adapt your grooming sessions to your work environment.
Here are some best practices that I've adopted during backlog grooming sessions:
1) Having a clear product vision helps to prioritize requirements.
At first, it seems that creating user stories will take too much time, but in fact, writing them helps the team understand what they'll build better which speeds up the whole process later on. If you don't know who is going to use something or why would anyone find it useful - think twice before adding it to the Product Backlog! Would you buy it?
2) Always keep PO in the loop when adding new user stories.
If you do this without telling her - it is like stealing money out of your own wallet! She has every right to know what's going on in the Product Backlog and will appreciate it if you share it with her.
3) Use Task Board for managing backlog grooming sessions (especially when PO is not there).
Have columns with labels like "Resolved", "To Discuss", "To Do" etc. A nice trick would be using different color stickers for newly added user stories (red), updated ones (green), duplicates that were identified, or even rejected requirements (blue). You can then use a whiteboard marker to tick off items that have been completed, move them into another column or remove them completely.
4) Get her involved in the process!
A Product Owner should act as a proxy to all team members. Let her read user stories, discuss them with the development team, and of course assist during backlog grooming sessions. This way she will get to know more of what's planned further down the road and it also makes your life easier!
5) Discuss the process itself!
Even though I am not an advocate of agile ceremonies, they are still good for some things. One of these is that when you sit together with your boss for 30 minutes or so discussing how you work it usually brings quite some interesting insights on both sides, changes opinions on certain aspects of software engineering in general but most importantly gets everyone aware of what is happening in the team. Something to discuss might also be 'what should be done in case of XXX situation' like dealing with urgent security updates or introducing new software versions (which will require you to change stuff).
6) Discuss the process itself!
Yes I know it sounds weird, but you might find out that there is room for improvement on how things are done. When this happens then please escalate that feedback up the food chain ASAP, because while code reviews improve code quality and testing improves product quality it might just turn out that doing things in a certain way improved both too!
7) Communicate progress regularly!
While setting goals is important, reporting progress against these goals is even more so. By communicating how things turned out helps you to get quick feedback on what you did and if it worked or not. Also reporting progress helps others to get a good grasp and deeper understanding of the problem domain (both with regards to your product and how your work fits in).
8) Make sure everyone uses the same language!
I am talking about vocabulary here, meaning that the words we use convey more than we realize. Make sure people understand each other by using as little jargon as possible, but as much as is needed. An example: While 'low hanging fruit might be common knowledge for you and me, it is likely that someone else coming into this conversation does not know this term at all - so now they have 2 things to learn right from the start!
9) Have frequent, regular check-ins.
After a brief 'getting to know you' phase, today's modern workplace is all about getting things done; I don't think this should stop us from taking the time every now and then to reflect on what we are doing. You can hold these retrospectives planning-free, not like your costly (and often useless) project meetings!
10) Be nice to yourself.
If you make mistakes, take it in stride; rolling with punches will teach you far more than trying to always get it right - trust me! And finally: Do what works for you.
