Conducting Backlog Grooming Session | Support Advacarepharma

General

To successfully conduct a Backlog grooming meeting, it’s important to know prior general basic concepts of Agile Methodologies.

What is Backlog Grooming?

Backlog Grooming is a regular session where backlog items (tasks and sub-tasks in a Project) are discussed, reviewed, and prioritized by department managers, project managers, product owners, and/or the rest of the team. Tasks in a project are prepared and aligned for the following Sprint session in which all participants will execute the work decided during this backlog Grooming session.

Who participates?

Backlog Grooming can be conducted by an individual or a group, but in our company backlog Grooming is most often conducted by a department manager or a project manager. Backlog Grooming is flexible in that it is possible that more than 1 individual can be included in the session, but only out of necessity. More than 1 person can be involved only if the participants are decision makers, being managers or project leaders. Generally, the more people involved, the more complicated the session becomes, but it can be necessary for more complex projects or activities.

What is the goal?

The primary goal of backlog Grooming is to keep the backlog up-to-date and ensure that backlog items are prepared for an upcoming Sprint session. Additionally, the process helps department and project managers explain and align the organization behind the strategy that informs the backlog items (tasks and sub-tasks).

The Grooming process is flexible and meant to be adapted to the needs of a company. In our case, we have a defined methodology for how Grooming, and Agile as a whole, has been adapted to fit our needs. In this case, the process we have defined is more rigid. However, our methodology has been refined and proven effective. The process will most definitely work to keep every department organized and structured to ensure the entire participating department or team is aligned and goals are achieved on a timeline.

What happens during Backlog Grooming?

Backlog Grooming, also referred to as backlog management, backlog refinement, pre-planning, or story time, is a widely adopted activity by Scrum and agile product teams. The most common tactical activities that occur during backlog Grooming include:

● Removing outdated tasks and stories.

● Adding new tasks and stories that reflect newly discovered user insights.

● Breaking down broad tasks and stories into smaller items (sub-tasks).

● Reordering tasks and stories based on their priority.

● Explaining and clearly defining tasks and stories to avoid uncertainty and “black box” communication.

● Assigning or re-assigning tasks and stories.

● Identifying roadblocks and minimizing risks related to backlog tasks and stories.

Note: Backlog Grooming is not an official event in Scrum. While many Scrum Teams may run this session, it's merely an example of a complementary practice.

Backlog Grooming Schedule & Duration

The leader of the session, being a department manager or project manager, is responsible for timeboxing the backlog Grooming meeting. Setting a time limit will encourage the team to stay focused.

Schedule

When is Backlog Grooming conducted?

Grooming sessions must be held prior to the subsequent Sprint session. In our company, Grooming is conducted on the Friday prior to the Sprint session on the following Monday. There should be as little time as possible between both sessions to ensure the Grooming session preparations include all of the completed activities and/or tasks from the previous Sprint session.

What is the frequency/duration of a Backlog Grooming session?

Backlog Grooming sessions take place according to the frequency of the Sprint meeting as it can only be conducted to prepare for the Sprint meeting.

It is possible that Grooming and Sprint can be rescheduled, but only under specific circumstances. For example, if a workweek is not Monday-Friday, or some other special circumstance that requires rescheduling. In our company, the following schedule applies:

● Marketing Dept: every 1 week

● AM Dept: every 2 weeks

● BD Dept: every 2 weeks

● Purchasing Dept: every 2 weeks

● IT Dept: every 1 week

● BD-Marketing Meetings: every 2 weeks

● Any Project: every 1 or 2 weeks or according to the needs of the project

Efficiency is key with Grooming sessions. If there is more than one person conducting the Grooming, the department or project manager needs to keep things moving along and ensure conversations stay on track. It is at their discretion if to assign time limits to each participant to keep things moving. This is where the department or project manager can be incredibly helpful. Even then, it might seem like there is a lot of work being squeezed into a short block of time, but if properly prepared there can easily be effective sessions.

Duration

How much time should you dedicate to a Backlog Grooming?

The meeting duration should be between 45 minutes, and not to exceed 90 minutes.

However, the time required for a Backlog meeting can vary according to the number of stakeholders and time period of the Sprint session:

● Department Backlog sessions: <45 minutes

● Project Backlog sessions: <45 minutes

● Large/Complex Project Backlog sessions: TBD but must be pre-determined and scheduled in ERP calendar

However, only if the Grooming session is a group and the project or activity is more complex, the time required can be longer but still there must be a predetermined time limit. If the list of backlog items is large, then the meeting can be split into 2 sessions.

Overall, the goal should be to have a productive and focused refinement session. That said, excessive amounts of time cannot be spent on these sessions.

Quickview: Getting Started

Who runs the Grooming and Sprint Planning sessions?

Department manager or Project manager. Further referred to as “project manager” in this SOP.

What is “Backlog Grooming”?

A session during which the project manager prepares for the upcoming Sprint session. The Grooming session is conducted right before the Sprint meeting so that the most recent status of work can be assessed to properly plan for the Sprint session.

What is the difference between a “Stakeholder” and “Owner”?

Owner (sometimes referred to just as Task Owner) is the participant in a Sprint session who is responsible for a task or sub-task, in essence the project manager of that specific task or sub-task. Stakeholder is the person in a Sprint session who partakes in a task or sub-task to bring it to completion.

*An Owner can become a Stakeholder, and visa versa.

What is a “Sprint Task Description”?

A list that summarizes the tasks for every participant in a Sprint session.

What are “Sprint Tasks in Kanban”?

A filtered Kanban showing every stage of Agile with all of the tasks and sub-tasks assigned to a specific participant of a Sprint session.

What is a “Projects Overview”?

A filtered Kanban showing every Project in ERP with the stages and all of the tasks and sub-tasks under a specific Project.

Conducting the Backlog Grooming

There are 3 main tools used to conduct Sprint sessions for which the purpose of the Grooming session is to prepare for:

1. Sprint Tasks in Kanban:

- Every project is broken into stages according to Agile:
Backlog > Sprint > To Do > In Progress > Revision > Done

- Each task is assigned to an owner or stakeholder of a project or ongoing activity. The Favorites dropdown contains the tasks assigned to every owner/stakeholder on a per person basis. Each task and sub-task is tracked in this environment.

2. Sprint Task Description:

- The Sprint Task Description is a template that is used for every department and included in the Description of a task or sub-task.

- The Sprint Task Description centralizes and summarizes all of the tasks that every stakeholder or department member is responsible to complete during the upcoming Sprint session. But the Sprint Task Description does not replace the Sprint Tasks in Kanban, rather it is just a tool to facilitate coordination and planning.

3. Projects Overview:

● Projects Overview is the view of the tasks on a per Project basis.

● Projects Overview centralizes and summarizes all of the tasks that need to be completed for any selected Project.

● Projects Overview allows to see the overall status of a project, which helps to track its progress.

● Projects Overview must be used when the project manager starts a new project and runs the Kick-Off Sprint Planning session.

All the tools, the Sprint Task Description, Sprint Tasks Kanban and Projects Overview are prepared during the Grooming session prior to the Sprint session. Unless otherwise pre-determined, Grooming sessions take place at the end of the week every Friday, or on a Friday before the next Sprint session if the Sprint sessions are longer in duration than 1 week.

Step 1: Create the Sprint Task Description

In the ERP Project module, open the dedicated project for tracking Sprint and department meetings.

1. Open the previous Sprint Task Description.

2. Duplicate the task.

Step 2: Update the Sprint Task Details

Duplicating the previous Sprint Task is only intended to save time and be more efficient, but it is easy to overlook revising all of the contents. Ensure that all task elements are updated:

● Task Title: format of title must be consistent with the defined structure and formatting for Sprint sessions:

- [department] Meeting (YYYY): M/DD - M/DD

● Assigned to: department or project manager

● Tags: add relevant tag to include:

- Department

- Task

● Parent Task: input the parent task (if applicable)

● Deadline: input the date that is the end of the Sprint session

● Date: date the meeting is conducted

● Stage: Sprint

Step 3: Check Stages of Projects in Kanban

After creating the Sprint Tasks List task, the next step is to check and update every Project in the ERP which applies to the department or project.

More specifically, the following elements of every task or sub-task in a Project should be updated:

● Stage:

Move tasks and sub-tasks that require action to:

- Backlog: If task or sub-task is paused or will be done in a future Sprint

All tasks/sub-tasks in backlog are only to be assigned to project manager, and should not be assigned to any other stakeholder/owner.

- Sprint: If task or sub-task is to be executed in next Sprint

- To Do: No tasks or sub-tasks moved to this stage in backlog Grooming. Tasks will be moved to this stage during the Sprint meeting.

- In Progress: Task or sub-task should be moved back to Sprint, or if completed to Done stage if stakeholder/owner did not do so.

- Revisions: Tasks or sub-tasks remain in this stage if revision is ongoing because the revision is relative to the task/sub-task opposed to the stakeholder/owner. Only if task or sub-task must be paused, restarted or cancelled should it be moved.

- Done: If task or sub-task has been completed in previous Sprint

● Assigned to: current stakeholder/owner of the task/sub-task

● Deadline: input the date that is the end of the Sprint session or a sooner date if the task is to be completed during the course of the next Sprint session

● Priority of task/sub-task:

- High Priority: P1 (3 stars)

- Moderate Priority: P2 (2 stars)

- Low Priority: P3 (1 star)

- Not yet planned: 0 stars

● Priority in each stage: tasks and sub-tasks in each stage organized from highest priority (top of column) to lowest priority (bottom of column)

● Description: update Description if necessary, including the 3 sections:

- Description: a brief description of the task including context

- Acceptance Criteria: The requirements and/or steps to be taken to complete the task

- Linked Elements: links to any resource or file that needs to be referenced.

Note: Linked elements that are files must also be saved in the server.

In essence, this step is cleaning up the stages in every Project to reflect the upcoming Sprint session.

Note: At the end of the backlog Grooming session, the status of every task in kanban for a stakeholder/owner must be consistent with the Sprint Task Description.

Step 4: Project Manager Updates Project Tasks in Kanban

In this step, the project manager organizes their own tasks/sub-tasks to which he/she is assigned. Doing so in this step not only organizes his/her work for the upcoming Sprint, but also serves to reassign tasks/sub-tasks that will move forward to Sprint but have not yet been assigned to any stakeholder/owner.

IMPORTANT:

Any new or already existing tasks/sub-tasks for a department or project that are in backlog must be assigned to the project manager. Other stakeholders/owners in the department/team should not have any tasks/sub-tasks in backlog.

1. Project manager opens the Sprint Tasks in Kanban that are assigned to himself/herself.

2. The Sprint Task Description is referenced to do the following:

- Project manager references the section “Upcoming” at bottom of the Sprint Task Description. This list of upcoming tasks/activities is compared to the tasks/sub-tasks in the backlog stage.

- New task/sub-task should be created and added to backlog stage for any upcoming tasks/activities listed for which a task/sub-task does not exist.

3. Project manager checks and reorganizes the tasks/sub-tasks in the backlog stage by updating (see Step 3):

● Stage:

- If task/sub-task remains assigned to project manager, move directly to To Do stage (skip Sprint stage).

- If task/sub-task is to be reassigned to a stakeholder/owner, move to Sprint stage.

● Assigned to: task/sub-task remains with project manager or is reassigned

● Deadline

● Priority of task/sub-task

● Priority in each stage

● Description

IMPORTANT:

New tasks/sub-tasks should be created in backlog stage by project manager on an ongoing basis at the time when it is realized that a future task/activity needs to be addressed in the future. Otherwise, there is no way to record and track future tasks/activities/projects. Creating a task/sub-task, whether big or small, clear on how to structure or not - is the tool used in the company for future planning of various things that need to get done.

Step 5: Update the Sprint Task Description

Each itemized task in the Sprint Task Description for every stakeholder/owner is to be reviewed and updated one-by-one. The list should reflect the priority of the tasks, #1 being highest priority and the last item being the lowest priority. This priority should correspond with the priority assigned to each task (P1, P2, P3, no stars).

The Sprint Task Description must match the Sprint Tasks in Kanban for every stakeholder/owner.

1. Open the Sprint Task Description for the upcoming Sprint session. Reference the Description and enter the EDIT mode.

2. Open the Sprint Task Description for the previous Sprint session. Reference the chatter to see the task containing the previous Sprint status update for each stakeholder/owner.

3. Open the Sprint Tasks in Kanban for each stakeholder/owner.

4. For each stakeholder/owner, update each itemized task in the Sprint Task Description of the upcoming Sprint session according to the most recent Sprint status update of the previous Sprint session. The Sprint Task Description template formatting should be followed without deviation:

1) [Task/Activity 1: Ongoing Activity or Project / Owner or Stakeholder]

>> [sub-activity 1 short description including any linked elements]

>> [sub-activity 2 short description including any linked elements]

>> [sub-activity 3 short description including any linked elements]

DUE DATE: [action to be done before next Sprint or another set due date]

ESTIMATED TIME: [estimated time to completion]

PREVIOUS SPRINT: [deficiencies including actions not completed, further revisions necessary, etc.]

* [URL of task/sub-task]

5. After updating an itemized task in the Sprint Task Description for a stakeholder/owner, compare to the corresponding task/sub-task in the Sprint Tasks in Kanban. Update Sprint Task Description and/or task in Sprint Tasks in Kanban to ensure consistency.

Remove completed itemized tasks and add new itemized tasks to the list:

- If task has been completed, remove from the Sprint Task Description.

- If task was not completed, assess if additional time should be permitted to complete the task or if the task has to be reassigned or the stakeholder/owner removed from the task due to failure to complete the task on-time.

Note: Inability to meet 3 extended deadlines in a row for any itemized task or continued failure to meet Sprint session deadlines shall be formally reported to management for further action. Follow company procedures for reporting an individual’s insufficient fulfillment of responsibilities.

- If a new task/sub-task has been added to the stakeholder/owner Sprint Tasks in Kanban, add a new itemized task to the Sprint Task Description.

- Check the section at the bottom of the Sprint Task Description “Upcoming” to determine if any of these tasks/activities should be added to the Sprint of any stakeholder/owner.

For every itemized task listed in “Upcoming” section at the bottom of the Sprint Task Description must also have a corresponding task/sub-task in Kanban.

6. After ensuring that the Sprint Task Description matches the Sprint Tasks in Kanban of every stakeholder/owner, calculate the total time consumed for each task/activity and update the total estimated hours for each person. Project manager determines 0-5 hours remaining unallocated for each stakeholder/owner to allow for unforeseen activities or tasks that pop up during the Sprint session.

7. The Sprint Task Description and Sprint Tasks in Kanban of a stakeholder/owner in the Projects Module must be aligned, must match.