Backlog Grooming

Backlog Grooming

Assist with backlog refinement for Talosix EDC teams by reviewing stories for completeness, suggesting acceptance criteria, identifying dependencies and blockers, and ensuring stories are ready for sprint planning.

Workflow

1. Pull Backlog Items: Use Jira to get stories for review:

   • All ungroomed: project = [KEY] AND status = "To Do" AND labels != "groomed" ORDER BY priority, created
   • Specific epic: project = [KEY] AND "Epic Link" = [EPIC-ID] AND status = "To Do"
   • Pre-sprint candidates: project = [KEY] AND sprint is EMPTY AND status = "Ready for Refinement" ORDER BY rank
   • Get full details with getJiraIssue for each story

2. Review Each Story against the quality checklist.

3. Generate Recommendations: Produce a grooming report with improvements.

4. Update Jira: Offer to update stories with suggested improvements.

Story Quality Checklist

Review each story against these criteria:

Completeness

• Title: Clear, concise, follows "[Action] [Object] [Context]" format
• Description: Sufficient context for a developer to understand the need
• User Story Format: "As a [persona], I want [action] so that [outcome]"
• Acceptance Criteria: Defined, testable, comprehensive (see Acceptance Criteria skill)
• Priority: Set and justified
• Story Points: Estimated (or flagged for estimation)
• Labels/Components: Properly tagged for tracking

EDC-Specific Completeness

• Personas Identified: Which EDC user roles are affected (CDM, CRC, Monitor, PI, Admin)?
• Study Impact: Does this affect active studies? New studies only? Both?
• Regulatory Flag: Does this touch 21 CFR Part 11 requirements (audit trail, e-signatures, access control)?
• Validation Impact: Will this require validation documentation updates?
• Data Model Impact: Does this change the data model or affect existing data?
• Multi-tenant Consideration: How does this work across different customer configurations?

INVEST Criteria

• Independent: Can be developed without waiting on other stories
• Negotiable: Scope can be discussed and adjusted
• Valuable: Delivers clear value to a user or the business
• Estimable: Team can reasonably estimate the effort
• Small: Can be completed in one sprint (if not, split it)
• Testable: Clear pass/fail criteria exist

Common Story Problems and Fixes

Problem: Story Too Large

Indicator: Estimated at 13+ points, or vague scope Fix: Split by:

• User persona (CDM vs. site vs. monitor workflow)
• CRUD operations (create, read, update, delete as separate stories)
• Happy path vs. edge cases
• Backend API vs. frontend UI
• Core feature vs. configuration/admin

Problem: Missing Acceptance Criteria

Fix: Generate criteria covering:

• Positive scenarios (happy path)
• Negative scenarios (error handling, validation)
• Edge cases (empty states, max limits, concurrent users)
• Regulatory scenarios (audit trail entries, permission checks)
• See the acceptance-criteria skill for detailed generation

Problem: Hidden Dependencies

Common EDC dependencies to check:

• Audit trail infrastructure changes
• Database migration requirements
• API versioning for existing integrations
• Permission/role model changes
• Study configuration schema changes
• CDISC export format impacts
• Downstream reporting impacts

Problem: Unclear Scope

Fix: Add explicit "In Scope" and "Out of Scope" sections:

**In Scope**:
- [Specific deliverable 1]
- [Specific deliverable 2]

**Out of Scope** (future stories):
- [Related but deferred item 1]
- [Related but deferred item 2]

Grooming Report Template

## Backlog Grooming Report
**Date**: [Date]
**Stories Reviewed**: [N]
**Project**: [Jira project key]

### Summary
- Ready for sprint: [X] stories ([Y] points)
- Needs refinement: [X] stories
- Needs splitting: [X] stories
- Blocked: [X] stories

### Story-by-Story Review

#### [JIRA-123]: [Story Title]
- **Status**: Ready / Needs Work / Needs Split / Blocked
- **Issues Found**:
  - [Issue 1 and recommendation]
  - [Issue 2 and recommendation]
- **Suggested Acceptance Criteria** (if missing):
  - Given [context], when [action], then [expected result]
- **Dependencies Identified**: [List]
- **Regulatory Flag**: [Yes/No - explanation]
- **Estimated Points**: [Suggestion if unestimated]

### Dependencies Map
[JIRA-123] --> [JIRA-456] (needs API endpoint first)
[JIRA-789] --> [External: Lab vendor API update]

### Recommended Priority Adjustments
| Story | Current Priority | Suggested Priority | Rationale |
|-------|-----------------|-------------------|-----------|

### Action Items
- [ ] [Owner]: Split [JIRA-XXX] into [suggested sub-stories]
- [ ] [Owner]: Add acceptance criteria to [JIRA-XXX]
- [ ] [Owner]: Resolve dependency with [team/system]
- [ ] [Owner]: Get regulatory review for [JIRA-XXX]

Post-Grooming Actions

Offer to:

• Update stories in Jira with suggested improvements via editJiraIssue
• Add comments with questions or suggestions via addCommentToJiraIssue
• Add "groomed" label to reviewed stories
• Create new stories for items that need splitting