The Secret to Effective Backlog Refinement Behavior Driven Development

When it comes to Backlog Refinement, phrases such as “split the user stories”, “use the three amigos”, and “refine when necessary” are often used to describe ways of doing so, but how can you be sure that you are refining in the most effective way? An effective, concrete method of refining the backlog is the process of Behavior Driven Development (BDD). While many consider BDD a way to write automated tests, it is much more than that. It is a collaboration technique that can be used with business partners to discover scenarios when refining the product and sprint backlog. BDD consists of discovering story details through structured examples, formulating the examples using a structured format, and automating a select subset of examples through tools such as Cucumber and Specflow. BDD can be used effectively to refine user stories well before they are sprint-planned and to iron out technical details when a user story is acted upon within a sprint. This presentation by Professional Scrum Trainer, Chuck Suscheck describes the discovery techniques of BDD and exemplify an end-to-end automated business scenario so that you can see the direct tie between business needs and software execution possible with BDD.