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Backlog refinement
Backlog refinement (formerly 'grooming') is the recurring habit of clarifying, splitting, estimating and deleting items at the top of the backlog so they are ready to plan.
Refinement is preparation, not selection. Its output is a top-of-backlog where every item has a clear title, enough description to estimate, a size, and no obvious blocking dependency — which is what lets sprint planning stay a thirty-minute decision instead of a two-hour writing session.
It does not need the whole team. One or two people rotating through a weekly thirty-minute pass covers most small teams, and deleting stale items is as much a part of it as writing new ones.
In Flocci Projects
The backlog view holds every issue not scoped into a sprint; refinement happens by editing issues in place and reordering by priority.
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- Agile
- Blocker
- Burndown chart
- Burnup chart
- Cycle time
- Daily standup
- Definition of done
- Definition of ready
- Epic
- Kanban
- Lead time
- Planning poker
- Product backlog
- Product owner
- Retrospective
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- Scrum master
- Sprint
- Sprint goal
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- Sprint review
- Story point
- Swimlane
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- User story
- Velocity
- WIP limit