Ready Checklist for an Agile Team

Accelerate agile implementation with this Ready checklist. Backlog refinement serves to ensure that backlog items are valuable, understood, and small enough so you can get them done in sprint and generate value sooner.

Download as PDF: English, French

Here is a simple reminder to keep you on track:

• Refined so that individual items are small, clear, and independent enough to fit easily into a sprint.
• Estimation is less helpful than refinement. Spend more time refining and less time on mere estimation.
• Acceptance criteria are clear enough to guide implementation.
• Discussed by those who understand the problem together with the implementation team.
• Y Why? The value to users and customers is clear and justifies implementing the item (now).

P.S. My rule of thumb for small enough: the team forecasts at least 10 items in the sprint and is confident of finishing them.

Notice how I didn’t call it a definition of ready? DoR is a bit controversial because it can lead to over-specifying backlog items, which is not really the idea. DoR can be useful in pipeline, so I have a graphic to highlight that.

Check out the attached infographic – what do you think?

P.S Thanks for Avi Schneier for his suggestions on the Definition of Done checklist. I have included an updated version in this PDF. What do you think?

#scrum #agile #done #ready #infographic