What is the Product Backlog Refinement template?
Set clear expectations of what needs to get done with your stakeholders and other teams by running a refinement session. Review items piled up in your product backlog and prioritize the stories to be ready for delivery. Make sure to groom your backlog to remain tidy and estimate only relevant issues in detail.
Refine your work regularly to help your team meet the sprint goals. Invite your colleagues to estimate and discuss tasks for the upcoming sprint. Collaborate with them to find out if all stories are prioritized and have all data and info needed for planning.
What are the benefits of the Product Backlog Refinement template?
Thanks to the Product Backlog Refinement template, you can:
- Keep the product backlog clean and tidy, so you will not feel like you’re drowning in the ever-growing to-do list.
- Define story details and acceptance criteria properly and make a good plan for the upcoming sprint planning meeting.
- Promote close work alignment and collaboration within your team and make sure your employees have a shared understanding of the work to be done.
- Expose a hidden complexity of tasks that might require more effort than initially thought and break them into smaller stories.
- Reveal dependencies between stories and see how much impact they have on other tasks.
How to use the Product Backlog Refinement template in a few steps?
- Open the Product Backlog Refinement template on a new board or add it to an already existing one.
- Invite your team to the board by sending an email invitation or sharing the board URL.
- Join the audio and video chat with your teammates to see their faces and talk to each other. Add camera stream cards to the board or to your cursor in the settings.
- Ask everyone on your team to start writing down epics on sticky notes and placing them at the bottom of the digital triangle. Remember, these are long-term tasks that take over ten sprints to complete. Use the Timer to ensure each part of the meeting will last only a few minutes.
- Write down mid-range tasks with more details on the next set of sticky notes and place them in the middle of the digital triangle. These tasks take from four to ten sprints to complete.
- Finish the session by writing down tasks with most details and putting them at the top of the digital triangle. These tasks take up to three sprints to complete. Convert sticky notes into Jira issues with a few clicks to start working on the next project right away.