Description
Backlog grooming (sometimes called story-time) is a common technique used by product owners and teams to clarify, size, and prioritize the backlog of epics and user stories before and during a sprint. The product owner has accountability for the product backlog and engages in regular, collaborative discussions with the agile team to review and revise it. The agile team supports backlog grooming by providing knowledge of the product or service being developed and the relative size of the epics and user stories in the backlog. New epics and user stories may emerge as a result of backlog grooming. It is the responsibility of the product owner to capture these within the product backlog along with their acceptance criteria. Backlog grooming typically includes a negotiation between the product owner and the agile team on which user stories will be added, removed, or revised. The user stories at the top of the backlog are typically included in the next sprint or iteration.
Additional backlogs, other than the product backlog, may be groomed to prioritize work items related to continuous improvement or non-product-related activities. In these cases, the stakeholders and frequency of backlog grooming may vary.
Typical Roles
Agile Team
Business SME (subject matter expert)
Product Owner
Desired Behaviors
- 1.
Create the initial product backlog by collecting and documenting epics and/or user stories associated with the desired product.
- 2.
Sequence the user stories in the backlog based on business value and priority. The highest priority user stories are at the top of the backlog, and the lowest priority user stories are at the bottom.
- 3.
Review and evaluate the user stories (product owner and agile team) using a defined set of quality criteria (e.g., INVEST (Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Sized, and Testable)).
- 4.
Identify user stories that do not meet the criteria and update them accordingly.
- 5.
Establish or update traceability between epics, user stories, and child user stories.
- 6.
If backlog grooming is occurring mid-sprint, identify the stories that are most likely to be included in the upcoming sprint.