Synopsis
The Product Owner refines the Release Backlog together with the team to ensure that they all have an up-to-date ranked
list on which to base their Sprint Planning.
Value
An ordered Release Backlog ensures that the team plans the most important work for the upcoming Sprint.
Note: The backlog is refined continuously throughout the project. Backlog refinement should consume
about 10% of the team's time. The Scrum guide does not specify how often this task is performed, or whether it is done
with meetings. We take the approach that the Product Owner will call meetings as required. See Meetings and Rational Team Concert.
Steps
The team decides when and how this activity is peformed. There are several different approaches. Here we
describe an approach where the Scrum Master coordinates this activity.
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Step
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Tool guidance
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1. (optional) Create Work items related to Sprint activities
Teams can create work items to track non-development activities performed during the Sprint, including
this one (Refine Release Backlog).
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Create standard non-development work items for a Sprint by using the work item template
Sprint. See Using a template to create work items. (This should be done only once per
Sprint).
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2. Refine Release Backlog
Perform the same steps as Refine Product Backlog, with a focus on the highest ranked work
items that are likely to be included in the next Sprint.
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Perform the same steps as described in Refining the Product Backlog with Rational Team Concert, optionally
using the Release Plan to focus on just those items already allocated to the release.
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Click Plans > All Plans >[Release name]
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3. Determine if the Release Backlog is sufficiently refined
The Scrum Master determines if the Release Backlog is sufficiently refined. There should be a
high level of confidence in the details and sizing for all stories that might be considered for the the
next Sprint. If this is not obvious, then discuss with the team the need to do more
refinement.
If it is not obvious that you have enough stories refined for the next Sprint, sum the sizes of the
refined stories and confirm the sum exceeds the team's historical velocity.
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The velocity for previous sprints in this release is available on the Release Plan under
Plan Details > Velocity. (For prior release sprints' velocities, consult prior
release plans).
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More information
See the Rational Team Concert tutorial:
Plan the Sprint (Refine Release Backlog section) for detailed step-by-step guidance. Also see this demo.
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