How Work Enters the Process
Backlog Management and Prioritization
Refinement: Preparing Work for Delivery
Sprint Cadence
Meta Scrum: Aligning Priorities Across the University
Sprint Meetings and Collaboration
Stakeholder Participation
Benefits of the Sprint Process
Questions?
Overview
The Sprint Process, also known as our Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), is the framework used to plan, prioritize, develop, test, deploy, and support application, integration, automation, AI, and data solutions at the University of Idaho.
The process is designed to create transparency, strengthen collaboration between OIT and campus partners, and ensure work is aligned with institutional priorities. By delivering work in small, manageable increments, teams can adapt to changing needs, gather feedback early, and provide value to the University more frequently.
New work can originate from a variety of sources, including enhancement requests, operational needs, strategic initiatives, IDEA submissions, compliance requirements, technical debt, and support trends.
When new work is identified, Product Managers and Product Owners collaborate with stakeholders to understand the business need, desired outcomes, dependencies, risks, and success criteria. This information is then documented in Azure DevOps (ADO) as one or more work items.
Work items may include:
- User Stories that describe a business need or desired capability
- Features that group related work into larger initiatives
- Bugs and defects
- Technical or infrastructure work
- Tasks required to support delivery
Documenting work in Azure DevOps creates a centralized, transparent backlog that can be reviewed, prioritized, and tracked throughout the delivery lifecycle.
The Azure DevOps backlog serves as the system of record for planned work. It provides visibility into current priorities, upcoming work, and work that is under consideration for future sprints.
Product Managers and Product Owners continuously review the backlog with stakeholders and delivery teams to ensure priorities reflect institutional needs and available capacity.
Work is prioritized based on factors such as:
- Alignment with University strategic priorities
- Stakeholder and business value
- Regulatory or compliance requirements
- Operational risk
- Dependencies on other projects or teams
- Resource availability and team capacity
- Urgency and impact
The backlog is not a fixed plan. Priorities are reviewed regularly and may change as institutional needs evolve.
Backlog refinement is one of the most important activities in the sprint process.
During weekly refinement meetings, Product Managers, Product Owners, team members, and stakeholders review upcoming work and prepare items for future sprints. The goal is to ensure work is clearly defined and ready for implementation before it reaches Sprint Planning.
During refinement, teams:
- Review business requirements and desired outcomes
- Clarify scope and expectations
- Identify dependencies and risks
- Discuss technical approaches
- Define acceptance criteria
- Break large initiatives into smaller, deliverable work items
- Estimate effort
- Determine whether work is ready to enter a future sprint
Stakeholder participation is strongly encouraged during refinement sessions. Early collaboration helps reduce misunderstandings, improve requirements quality, and ensure the team is building the right solution.
Work that is not sufficiently defined remains in the backlog until additional information is available.
Work is delivered through two-week sprint cycles. At the start of each sprint, teams review the highest-priority backlog items and select work that can reasonably be completed during the upcoming sprint.
Sprint goals are established to define the business outcomes the team intends to deliver. These goals help ensure that teams focus on value and outcomes rather than simply completing a list of tasks.
Once work is committed to a sprint, teams begin development, testing, collaboration, and delivery activities.
The Meta Scrum team is a cross-functional, cross-institutional forum that brings together Product Managers, Product Owners, technical teams, and stakeholders from across the University.
Meeting weekly, Meta Scrum serves as the primary venue for reviewing institutional priorities, discussing new requests, addressing dependencies, and ensuring technology investments are aligned with strategic objectives.
Meta Scrum helps:
- Align technology work with University priorities
- Provide visibility into current and upcoming initiatives
- Discuss IDEA submissions and emerging needs
- Resolve dependencies between departments and teams
- Coordinate work across multiple sprint teams
- Support informed prioritization decisions
By involving representatives from across the institution, Meta Scrum helps ensure that technology resources are focused on the highest-value work while maintaining transparency and shared ownership of priorities.
Several recurring meetings support the sprint process and create opportunities for communication, feedback, and continuous improvement.
Sprint Planning (Every Two Weeks)
At the beginning of each sprint, teams review the highest-priority backlog items, confirm readiness, establish sprint goals, and commit to work for the upcoming sprint.
Daily Stand-Ups
Teams meet briefly each day to share progress, discuss upcoming work, and identify any impediments that could impact delivery.
Weekly Refinement Meetings
Teams collaborate with Product Managers, Product Owners, and stakeholders to review and prepare upcoming backlog items for future sprint planning.
Sprint Reviews and Demonstrations
At the conclusion of each sprint, teams demonstrate completed work and highlight outcomes delivered during the sprint.
Stakeholders are encouraged to attend these reviews to:
- See completed functionality and enhancements
- Learn about newly delivered capabilities
- Provide feedback
- Ask questions
- Help shape future priorities
Sprint Reviews provide important visibility into progress and create a direct feedback loop between stakeholders and delivery teams.
Sprint Retrospectives
Following each sprint, teams reflect on lessons learned, identify improvement opportunities, and develop actions to improve future delivery.
Stakeholder engagement is essential to the success of the sprint process. Stakeholders are encouraged to:
- Submit and discuss new requests
- Participate in backlog refinement sessions
- Help define business requirements and success criteria
- Attend Sprint Reviews and demonstrations
- Provide feedback on delivered solutions
- Assist with prioritization decisions
- Participate in Meta Scrum discussions directly or through designated representatives
This ongoing collaboration helps ensure solutions meet business needs, support institutional objectives, and deliver measurable value to the University community.
The Sprint Process provides:
- Greater visibility into priorities, progress, and upcoming work
- Transparent prioritization and scheduling decisions
- Strong partnerships between OIT and stakeholders across the University
- Faster delivery of value through incremental releases
- Improved coordination across departments and teams
- Higher quality through continuous review, testing, and validation
- More predictable planning and delivery
- Continuous improvement through feedback and retrospectives
For questions about priorities, backlog items, sprint participation, or product ownership, please contact the appropriate Product Manager or Product Owner.