In the beginning of a project or starting work on a new requirement, user stories placed in backlog are not prioritized and estimated. They might need more detail and explanation. The agile team may need to discuss more to fully comprehend not only the requirement but the value attached to the backlog. For that Agile teams take part in a grooming session, where user stories are discussed with the team and all the ambiguities are removed.

  • Development team asks questions pertaining to user stories and product owner prioritize them with the team.
  • Development team estimate the user stories using one estimation method.
  • Development team gives feedback that if any technical user stories need to be prioritized as well.
  • After completion of grooming and planning session team comes out with a groomed backlog.

Using DEEP: Check if your groomed backlog can be represented by DEEP.

  • Detailed appropriately
  • Emergent
  • Estimated
  • Prioritized

Definition of Ready: Another way to keep your User Stories ready is to define a definition of Ready. Each team and Organization defines their own definition of Ready and a user story must meet these criteria before the scrum team will take it into a sprint.

Final Words: In Sprint planning meeting, development team finalizes user stories of the sprint and their estimate, before start working on it. There is always a possibility to find out new requirement while working on current user stories. It is Product Owner responsibility to prioritize such work.