Backlog

Keep an ordered, ready list of work so sprint planning takes twenty minutes instead of two hours.

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The backlog is part of the agile framework, available on Pro Unlimited and above.

The backlog is everything not yet committed to a sprint, ordered by priority. Its job is simple: whenever you plan a sprint, the next thing to work on should already be at the top and ready to start.

#What "ordered" means

A single ranked list, not buckets. If two items are both "high priority", one is still above the other — someone has to decide, and it is better decided in advance than in a planning meeting.

Tip

The top ten items should be genuinely ready. Below that, rough is fine. Refining item 200 is wasted work — it will change or be deleted before you get there.

#Ready to start

An item at the top of the backlog should be pullable without a conversation:

Ready means	Not ready
The outcome is clear	"Improve the dashboard"
Acceptance criteria written	Nobody knows what done means
Estimated	No sense of size
Dependencies known	Blocked by something unfinished
Small enough for one sprint	Obviously several sprints of work

Unready items poison sprint planning

If the team has to design the work during planning, planning takes hours and the estimates are guesses. Grooming is what prevents that.

#Grooming

A short, regular session — 30–60 minutes a week for most teams — where you:

Re-rank the top
Priorities change. The order should reflect this week, not last quarter.
Refine what's coming
Take the next sprint's worth and make it ready. Add criteria, estimate, identify dependencies.
Split what's too big
Anything that cannot finish in one sprint gets broken down — or promoted to an epic.
Delete aggressively
This is the step teams skip, and it is the most valuable one.

#Delete more than you think

A backlog of 400 items is not an asset. Nobody reads to the bottom, so anything down there is invisible — while still costing attention every time you scroll past it.

🗑Delete it

Untouched for six months, or nobody can explain why it matters. If it genuinely matters, it will come back.

📌Keep it

A real commitment, or something you will act on this quarter.

Tip

A backlog you can read in one sitting is worth more than a comprehensive one you never open.

#Estimating

Estimate at the top of the backlog, not throughout. Items far down will change before you build them.

Be consistent rather than accurate — velocity works as a forecast when estimates are internally consistent, even if every number is systematically wrong.

#From backlog to sprint

At planning, pull from the top until you hit capacity — your recent velocity, not your optimism.

Don't cherry-pick from the middle

If the team routinely skips past top items to pull easier ones, the order is wrong or the top items are not ready. Fix that rather than working around it.

#Backlog and epics

Large work sits in the backlog as an epic until it is close enough to break down. That keeps big items visible without cluttering the list with fifty speculative sub-items.

🏃Next: sprints

Planning, running and completing them.