How to hold an effective refinement session?

Abstract. © Marcin Konkel . All rights reserved.

Having worked with a few teams recently, I created a list for them that they might use to enhance their refinement sessions or bring some structure to it to make it more useful. I’m sharing below and adding some ideas or practices I’ve seen (or my colleagues have seen).

Definition: Product Backlog Refinement is the act of adding detail, estimates, and orders to items in the Product Backlog.

My definition of practical refinement is when we finish it knowing enough about what lies ahead of us in the product that enables us to start the work.

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Before the meeting:

1. What is the next important thing we should work on? (this might finally become your sprint goal).
2. How does it fit in our roadmap or next big thing?
3. Choose and prepare the PBIs (Product Backlog Items).
4. Write the user story/why and the things you know right now (can be done by PO or collectively by the whole team a few days prior to the refinement session).

On the meeting:

1. List all of the stories you want to refine today and divide available time accordingly. Adjust the number of PBIs if needed.
2. Start with quick wins with the highest priority (you can use The…