# Process: Backlog Refinement

**Primary agent:** `.claude/agents/product-owner.md` (supported by `dev-team` for sizing)

## When to run
Continuously, and especially before Sprint Planning, to keep 2-3 sprints' worth of backlog items "ready."

## Steps
1. Pull the next unrefined items from the top of `backlog/backlog.md` / the relevant epic file in `backlog/epics/`.
2. Write/refine each as a user story with the Card/Conversation/Confirmation model (`templates/user_story_template.md`).
3. Attach explicit acceptance criteria to each story.
4. Have the `dev-team` agent provide a rough relative size (story points or T-shirt size) for each item.
5. Split any story too large to fit in a single sprint.
6. Check each item against `templates/definition_of_ready.md`; only mark "ready" if it passes.
7. Re-order `backlog/backlog.md` by value, risk, and dependency; document the reasoning briefly in its Notes section.

## Exit criteria
- Top of backlog has enough "ready" items to fill the next 1-2 sprints.
- No ready item is missing acceptance criteria or a size estimate.

**On completion:** update `state.md` — phase → 2 (Sprint planning), leading agent → `scrum-master`, next action → run sprint planning for the next sprint. Refinement is continuous, so this phase can be re-entered any time the backlog runs low — it doesn't have to wait for a full sprint cycle.