Product Backlog
In short
The product backlog is a single ordered list of everything a team might do to improve a product, such as features, fixes, and technical work.
What is a product backlog?
The product backlog is the one ordered list of all the work that might be done on a product: new features, changes, bug fixes, technical improvements, and experiments. In Scrum it is one of the three artifacts and the only source of work for the team, and the Product Owner is accountable for its content and order. Since the 2020 Scrum Guide, the backlog is tied to a product goal, the long-term objective that its items move the product toward.
Items near the top are small, clear, and estimated, ready to be pulled into the next sprint, while items further down are larger and vaguer, such as epics that will be split later. The team regularly spends time on backlog refinement: breaking big items down, adding details and acceptance criteria, estimating, and reordering. The order reflects value, risk, dependencies, and cost, and the backlog is never finished, because items are added, changed, and removed as the team learns.
A product backlog is like a restaurant's prep list, ordered by what the kitchen needs first; the head chef keeps reordering it as orders come in and ingredients run out. Teams usually keep it in a tracking tool or on a board where stakeholders can see it, which makes priorities visible and gives everyone one place to put new requests.
The product backlog is often confused with the sprint backlog. The product backlog holds all possible future work for the whole product and is managed by the Product Owner, while the sprint backlog is the small set of items the Developers chose for the current sprint, together with the sprint goal and their plan for delivering it. A product backlog is also not a place to store every idea forever: a long, unordered list hides priorities, and deleting items that will never be done is healthy.
Key takeaways
- The product backlog is a single, ordered list of work for one product.
- The Product Owner is accountable for its content and order.
- Top items are small and ready; lower items are larger and less detailed.
- Backlog refinement keeps items clear, estimated, and in the right order.
- The sprint backlog is the subset of items chosen for the current sprint.
Example
# Ordered from most to least important: small and ready at the top
product_goal: Customers can manage their own subscriptions online
items:
- title: Show the current plan on the account page # ready for the next sprint
type: user story
estimate: 2
acceptance_criteria: [Plan name and renewal date are visible]
- title: Fix double charge when a card is updated
type: bug
estimate: 3
- title: Upgrade the payment library to a supported version
type: technical
estimate: 5
- title: Let customers pause a subscription # an epic, not yet split
type: epicReaders ask
What is the difference between a product backlog and a sprint backlog?
The product backlog contains all planned work for the product and is ordered by the Product Owner. The sprint backlog contains only the items selected for the current sprint, plus the sprint goal and the Developers' plan to deliver them.
What is backlog refinement?
Backlog refinement, once called backlog grooming, is the ongoing work of breaking backlog items into smaller pieces, clarifying details and acceptance criteria, estimating them, and adjusting their order so upcoming items are ready for a sprint.
Who can add items to the product backlog?
Anyone can suggest items, including stakeholders and Developers, but the Product Owner decides whether they belong and where they go in the order.
See also
- Product OwnerTeams & Process, p. 18The Product Owner is the Scrum accountability responsible for maximizing a product's value by deciding what to build next and ordering the product backlog.
- User StoryTeams & Process, p. 30A user story is a short, plain-language description of a feature told from the user's point of view, explaining who wants it, what they want, and why.
- EpicTeams & Process, p. 8An epic is a large body of work in Agile that is too big to finish in one sprint, so the team breaks it down into smaller user stories delivered over time.
- SprintTeams & Process, p. 26A sprint is a fixed-length period of one month or less, often two weeks, in which a Scrum team works toward one goal and produces a usable product increment.
- ScrumTeams & Process, p. 21Scrum is an Agile framework in which a small team delivers a product in fixed-length cycles called sprints, using defined roles, events, and artifacts.
- Acceptance CriteriaTeams & Process, p. 1Acceptance criteria are the specific, testable conditions a single user story or backlog item must meet before the Product Owner accepts it as complete.
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