I don’t know about you, but the word ‘grooming’ has some very negative connotations for me.

It can be used entirely innocently – such as in the context of pet grooming, or for personal grooming – but certainly here in Ireland and the UK the word is often associated with child exploitation and abuse.

So when I want to get stories ready for a sprint, I host a backlog Refinement session with my team. And I’m still find it somewhat distasteful when some of my colleagues – and this is mostly people in the USA – still call it backlog grooming.

Maybe the word grooming doesn’t have the same meaning at the other side of the Atlantic, so maybe I shouldn’t judge.

But I’d be interested to know whether people in other countries use the word grooming in their agile ceremonies, so get in contact or leave a comment below…