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🔍 Phase 2: Backlog Refinement

Stakeholder sessions to clarify requirements and prepare items for design

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Stakeholder Refinement Sessions

Aspect Details
Frequency Bi-weekly (Sprint Week 1)
Duration 1-2 hours
Attendees Product Owner, Functional Lead, Technical Lead, Business Stakeholders
Facilitator Product Owner

Session Agenda

  1. Review top 10-15 backlog items - Focus on highest priority items not yet refined
  2. Clarify business requirements - What exactly is needed? What problem are we solving?
  3. Define acceptance criteria - How will we know when it's done correctly?
  4. Validate priority - Is this still the right priority based on current business needs?
  5. Identify dependencies - What else does this depend on? What depends on this?
  6. Flag for design - Mark items ready for UX/UI design phase

Refinement Outputs

After a successful refinement session, each item should have:

Not Ready Yet? Items missing key information should be flagged and either clarified in the session or returned to the submitter for more details.
Not every item needs refinement. Well-understood bugs and small tasks can go directly to sprint with minimal discussion.

Design Queue Management

Items marked "Ready for Design" are placed in the Design Queue for the UX/UI team.

Prioritization Factors

Factor Weight Description
Business Priority High Strategic importance and stakeholder priority
Target Sprint High When development is planned to start
Design Complexity Medium How much design work is needed
Dependencies Medium What blocks or is blocked by this
One Sprint Ahead: Designs should be completed at least one sprint before development is scheduled to begin. This ensures developers have finalized designs at Sprint Planning.

Roles in Refinement

Role Responsibility
Product Owner Facilitates session, makes final priority decisions, ensures business value is clear
Functional Lead Validates business alignment, identifies cross-team impacts
Technical Lead Assesses technical feasibility, identifies technical risks and dependencies
Business Stakeholders Provide context, clarify requirements, validate priorities

Next Phase

Items in the Design Queue move to UX/UI Design where designers create wireframes, mockups, and prototypes.