Krystyna Jędrzejewska

In Scrum, everything revolves around the sprint, a clearly-defined, intensely productive period of time in which the team tackles priorities from the product backlog. But how does the Scrum team (including the product owner) know when those priorities are ready to be addressed? How do you know when it’s time to sprint? This is where the process of backlog refinement, filtered through what’s known as the Definition of Ready (DoR), plays an essential role. Clearly, the Definition of Ready and the refinement process are interdependent. Refinement results in product backlog items that are ready for development, and the Definition of Ready is the criteria by which we can say that refinement has been successful – if a Definition of Ready is at all unclear, you need to revisit the refinement process!

There is a human factor in product development. Your team could have the right skills and experience to work well together, but there is always a possibility that they won’t align on a personal level. What do you do when frictions and tensions accumulate to the point where it starts affecting your team’s performance? In this article, we will tell you about a tool that was created just for that reason - clear the air workshops. Read on to learn what they are, how they are conducted, and how releasing tensions in the team is not the only benefit.