Good refinement makes development more predictable, leads to better solutions and enables the Product Owner to set the right priorities. Still many teams fail to unlock the full potential of refinement. Join this session to get practical tips to get more out of your refinement sessions.I have guided many teams during their transition toward Agile. Initially most attention went to the ceremonies and understanding the agile values. Experience taught me that when the team gets up to speed refinement becomes a bottleneck. Crucial because good refinement makes development more predictable, leads to better solutions and enables the Product Owner to set the right priorities.Unfortunately, I see many teams that do not unlock the full potential of refinement. Not only is the time spent on refinement often limited, many of the refinement meetings I join are inefficient. I meet teams that spent half the meeting watching the Product Owner entering the new backlog items in the workflow system. Although they poker the user stories afterwards, little time is left to discussions the best solution and risks that need to be avoided.In this talk I will focus on the following topics• Advantages of good refinement and what I see in daily practise• How we can boost the potential of Refinement by organising it as a process rather than a meeting• Introduction of challenging questions that can be used to prepare your refinement• And last but not least, how you can involve the off-site team members of distributed teamsJoin this session if you are an Agile Coach of SM and want to help your team(s) to get more out of refinement. If you are a PO and feel a need to boost quality and predictability, or if you are a member of a distributed team and want to involve your fellow team members making better solutions.

1. Software testing Business Transformation Security
Specialized in progression
Refinement
Unlock the full potential of
your refinement session
Agile Business Day – September 2020
Online Conference- Venice
Derk-Jan de Grood
@DerkJandeGrood - #ABD20

2. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
Abstract
Good refinement makes development more predictable, leads to better solutions and enables the Product Owner to set the right priorities. Still
many teams fail to unlock the full potential of refinement. Join this session to get practical tips to get more out of your refinement sessions.
I have guided many teams during their transition toward Agile. Initially most attention went to the ceremonies and understanding the agile values.
Experience taught me that when the team gets up to speed refinement becomes a bottleneck. Crucial because good refinement makes
development more predictable, leads to better solutions and enables the Product Owner to set the right priorities.
Unfortunately, I see many teams that do not unlock the full potential of refinement. Not only is the time spent on refinement often limited, many
of the refinement meetings I join are inefficient. I meet teams that spent half the meeting watching the Product Owner entering the new backlog
items in the workflow system. Although they poker the user stories afterwards, little time is left to discussions the best solution and risks that
need to be avoided.
In this talk I will focus on the following topics
• Advantages of good refinement and what I see in daily practise
• How we can boost the potential of Refinement by organising it as a process rather than a meeting
• Introduction of challenging questions that can be used to prepare your refinement
• And last but not least, how you can involve the off-site team members of distributed teams
Join this session if you are an Agile Coach of SM and want to help your team(s) to get more out of refinement. If you are a PO and feel a need to
boost quality and predictability, or if you are a member of a distributed team and want to involve your fellow team members making better
solutions.
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3. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
3
Benefits of Refinement
Observations
Improving Refinement
Distributed teams
18 Challenging Questions

4. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
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5. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
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Preparation
Implementation
Release
Initiation
IT
Realisation
ii
iii
i

6. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
Bi-weekly Meeting with the whole team
Big Team meeting
Not everyone is involved
Watch the workflow item being updated
Pokering the item
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7. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
No Stock
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8. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
Definition of Ready
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9. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
Little/to much detail
10

10. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
Discipline Silo’s
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11. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
Good refinement ….
Leads to better
solutions
Reduces surprises Leads to better
quality/efficiency
Better predictability Better priorities
Ensures highest
value first
Stakeholders define
define their need
Increased flexibility Team Commitment What do you
think?....

12. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
Have that meeting…
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13. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
Prepare?
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14. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
Preparation Checklist
 Workflow tool updated
 DOR is up to date and known
 Participants know which items will be discussed
 Proposed solution has been shared in advance
 One or more team members can introduce the item and its
proposed solution
 Sufficient time is reserved for dialogue
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15. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
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Not
Everyone
needs to be
involved
Time to
think about
the solution
Knowledge
Transfer
“Refinement becomes a series of
activities like thinking, writing, reviewing,
discussing and preparing”

16. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
Refinement
17
Sprint planning
PO gives explanation to the user stories
when required
Development team adjusts estimation
if required
Scrum team defines the sprint backlog
for the coming sprint
Solution Definition
Scrum team invests the best solution.
Scrum team involves colleagues outside
the team, e.g. specialists and
stakeholders
Backlog refinement meeting where the
team commits to solution, estimation
and checks the DoR
Preparation
BC splits the Epic into userstories en
drafts the solution
BC discusses the draft solution with
Stakeholders, Developers, and
specialists.
Scrum team selects the user story if
they want to pick it up.
Initiation
Business defines a new Epic PO does an intake on the Epic and sets
the priority with the stakeholders
BC selects the Epic to refine
Current sprint
Looking 1-3
sprints ahead
Looking a
quarter ahead
Annual
Roadmap
Collaborate on
the best solution
Create a pull by
the teams
Release pressure
on the Sprint
planning
Look ahead

17. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session

18. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
Bridging the gap
19
Culture
Opinion
Language
e
Technical communication

19. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
A good read..
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20. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
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21. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
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22. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
Team Distribution
23
PO and SM
BA
Testers
[InspiredbyoriginalpicturebySyedAmeenuddin]

23. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
Thus…
24
Due to technical reasons, team
distribution and cultural
differences involving all team
members and discussing the
solution is even more
challenging

24. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
RefinementQuestions
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25. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
10.Do we know any other implementation of a similar
solution (in or own organization or maybe a
competitor) and where does our solution differ?
11.Is there any other implementation that we can do, that
is clearly not what we want, but that satisfies the
requirements anyway?
12.What other interpretation could a developer use to
build the user story and what test do we need perform
to detect this?
13.Where do we create technical debt if we implement
this user story as planned?
14.What “vague” terms are used in the User story, e.g.
words like fast, soon, early, better, easy, before, etc.?
15.What tasks do we need to complete this user story and
who wants to (or not) do what task…?
16.What skills are needed to complete this user story, and
do we have these skills in the team?
17.Is it clear how the user story contributes to the product
vision of the PO?
18.Can we split the user story into a smaller one and still
add value?
18 Questions
1. Do we understand what we can do with the
system after the story user is completed (that
we cannot do with the current system)?
2. How would you test this user story?
3. Where do we see dependencies with other
user stories or teams?
4. What architectural challenges do you see?
5. What parts of the implementation looks like
code that already exists elsewhere, and
should we re-use it?
6. Are there security aspects we need to
consider?
7. Are there performance or UX aspects we need
to consider
8. Is there any developer that thinks he cannot
build this, and why?
9. What should we demo to show it works as
planned? 26

26. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
10.Do we know any other implementation of a similar
solution (in or own organization or maybe a
competitor) and where does our solution differ?
11.Is there any other implementation that we can do, that
is clearly not what we want, but that satisfies the
requirements anyway?
12.What other interpretation could a developer use to
build the user story and what test do we need perform
to detect this?
13.Where do we create technical debt if we implement
this user story as planned?
14.What “vague” terms are used in the User story, e.g.
words like fast, soon, early, better, easy, before, etc.?
15.What tasks do we need to complete this user story and
who wants to (or not) do what task…?
16.What skills are needed to complete this user story, and
do we have these skills in the team?
17.Is it clear how the user story contributes to the product
vision of the PO?
18.Can we split the user story into a smaller one and still
add value?
18 Questions
1. Do we understand what we can do with the
system after the story user is completed (that
we cannot do with the current system)?
2. How would you test this user story?
3. Where do we see dependencies with other
user stories or teams?
4. What architectural challenges do you see?
5. What parts of the implementation looks like
code that already exists elsewhere, and
should we re-use it?
6. Are there security aspects we need to
consider?
7. Are there performance or UX aspects we need
to consider
8. Is there any developer that thinks he cannot
build this, and why?
9. What should we demo to show it works as
planned? 27
Do we understand what we can do with the
system after the story user is completed (that we
cannot do with the current system)?
What parts of the implementation looks like code
that already exists elsewhere, and should we re-
use it?

27. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
How to use…?
Case:You didn’t prepare
Case:You want to do knowledge exchange
Case:You want people te speak up
Case:You want to bridge the on/offshore gap
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28. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
You didn’t prepare
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Advantage
It triggers discussion and creates awereness on
aspects to consider when designing the solution
Approach
1. Random select a card
2. Discuss with the team
3. If the question is not applicable, discard it and
select another

29. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
You want to do knowledge exchange
30
Advantage
The team member is challenged to apply and
share his inights and knowledge
Approach
1. Select a question that aligns with the
knowledge you want to develop
2. Prepare the answer
3. Discuss the answer and questions you may
have with a peer team member

30. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
You want people te speak up
31
Advantage
The team member is stimulated to present his
opinion during the refinement meeting, even if
he normaly would remain on the background
Approach
1. Each team member selects a question
2. Prepare the answer
3. Pitch the result in the next refinement meeting

31. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
You want to
bridge the
on/offshore
gap
32
Advantage
The team members are stimulated collaborate
with team member ’on the other side’
Approach
1. Make couples from on and offshore
members
2. Couple selects a question and prepares
the answer together
3. Pitch the result in the next refinement
meeting

32. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
33
Wrap up

33. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
34
Voorbereiding
Implementatie
Vrijgave
Initiatie
IT Realisatie
ii
iii
i
Built-in Quality
How to use…?
Case: You didn’t prepare
Case: You want to do knowledgeexchange
Case: You want peopletespeak up
Case: You want to bridgetheon/offshoregap
29
Built-in Quality
Preparation Checklist
q Workflow tool updated
q DORisup to dateand known
q Item isnearlyready
q Participantsknow which itemswill bediscussed
q Oneor moreteam memberscan introducetheitem and its
proposed solution
q Solution hasbeen shared in advance
q Sufficient timeisreserveed for dialogue
16
Sprint planning
PO gives explanation to the user stories
when required
Development team adjusts estimation
if required
Scrum team defines the sprint backlog
for the coming sprint
Solution Definition
Scrum team invests the best solution. Scrum team involves colleagues outside
the team, e.g. specialists and
stakeholders Backlog refinement meeting where the
team commits to solution, estimation
and checks the DoR
Preparation
BC splits the Epic into userstories en
drafts the solution
BC discusses the draft solution with
Stakeholders, Developers, and
specialists.
Scrum team selects the user story if
they want to pick it up.
Initiation
Business defines a new Epic
PO does an intake on the Epic and sets
the priority with the stakeholders
BC selects the Epic to refine
Current sprint
Looking 1-3sprints ahead
Looking aquarter ahead
AnnualRoadmap
Leadstobetter
solutions
Reduces
surprises
Better priorities
Better
predictability
Leadstobetter
quality/efficien
cy
Ensureshighest
valuefirst
Stakeholders
definetheir
need
Increased
flexibility
Team
Commitment
What doyou
think?....
Due to technical reasons, team
distribution and cultural
differences involving all team
members and discussing the
solution is even more
challenging
Distributed
teams?

34. Unlock the full potential of your refinement session
Derk-Jan de Grood
Agile Coach - Tester - Author - Speaker
@DerkJandeGrood
https://djdegrood.wordpress.com/
d.degrood@squerist.nl
+31 6 51807878