I was recently invited to facilitate a backlog grooming session with a scrum team that was struggling to deliver in an agile manner. They had been running scrum for approximately 10 weeks (five sprints), but were yet to deliver a single completed piece of functionality. In addition, the team was beginning to show signs of dysfunction, with tensions rising between team members. Coupled with the different levels of buy-in regarding how to do things in a more agile way and conflicting team members, it was going to be a tough session.

After the second backlog grooming session in two days, we left having successfully groomed the entire backlog of approximately 30 stories. As we left the room, I overheard one of the participants telling another “that was fun!”.

The next day, I checked in with the team’s development manager, who shared the team had said the session was one of the most productive and useful they had had, since the project started three months ago. In fact, it was the most valuable session they’d had yet. Wow!, I thought to myself, I don’t remember it being that great or impressive. What did I do differently?

That brings us to my thoughts on the six critical success factors for an effective backlog grooming session:

1. Make use of an external facilitator: Previously the team had the business analyst (BA) facilitating the session, who would read out the stories and tell the developers what was required. This time around, I was brought in as an external facilitator. Having an individual who is external to the team facilitate the session changed the dynamic, ensuring everyone was an equal participant and could focus on the story. The role of the BA was that of an enabler, rather than the enforcer of the story. This also helped to reduce tension related to hierarchy in the team.
2. Create a clear definition of done (DoD): A team working without a DoD is similar to a project manager working without a plan. With no clear understanding of what is required and what they are responsible for completing, the team will often size tasks not relevant to them, or worse, size stories without considering what is required. Having a clear DoD helps guide the discussion about each story’s boundary. If there is debate about the risk associated with outside dependencies – referencing the DoD when sizing, together with the note of requirements in the definition of ready – will ensure you don’t set yourself up for failure in the sprint planning session.
3. Include just enough detail: Often when grooming, the team wants sight of every level of detail to provide a precise size. Remember, this is an estimate, not a commitment. Grooming sessions are used to identify dependencies and high-level acceptance criteria, challenging the value of the story and not to identify every single task – that is for sprint planning. Remembering this will help to avoid analysis paralysis. In our grooming session, we defined high level success criteria to conclude each story, by answering the question – “given a set of criteria, what is the expected outcome?”.
4. Use relative sizing: Too often teams size based on how many days it will take to complete a story, rather than by comparison. There are several disadvantages of this technique, including creating a skills dependency as well as not accounting for things that may go wrong. Relative sizing allows the team to be able to size quickly, without needing to plan for every detail. In our grooming session, previously sized story cards were put up and grouped according to size. This improved visibility for the team, allowing them to focus on sizing by comparison, rather than worrying about absolute estimations.
5. Make it collaborative: Previously, backlog grooming was primarily used for the developers to provide estimations – and usually led by the senior developer. In a team of five, if only one person’s opinion is given credence, the engagement level is bound to be low. By introducing a DoD using planning poker – and not just counting development estimations – the collaboration and engagement of the team improved. People whose estimations were outliers were not disregarded, but rather they were treated as if they had thought of something others had missed. As a result, participants were eager to give their opinions. Additionally, the final size was agreed on by the team, rather than being the opinion of one person who would be held accountable for inaccurate estimations.
6. Finally, make it fun: Lengthy sessions of talking through multiple stories in a monotone voice is not likely to inspire. Adding a sense of fun was key in ensuring consistent engagement levels. This can be done by using different facilitation techniques. We started off using planning poker to size and playing ching-chong-cha, before revealing the sizes to keep the energy levels up. When the group grew tired of planning poker, we moved over to a silent sizing exercise, whereby the anticipation kept everyone engaged. Having an external facilitator, who is not worried about the content of the stories, helps keep the meeting fun and engaging.

Introducing these basic techniques into the team’s backlog grooming made a significant difference to the way they viewed the session and played a part in motivating and engaging the team.

This is a good basis for setting a team up for success and helping them focus on delivery.