What is an Engineering Backlog?
A backlog is any list of unfinished, actionable tasks to be completed to achieve a strategic goal. The product owner maintains an engineering backlog. This backlog is a tool to track and prioritize the development team’s tasks in upcoming sprints. This is common in agile organizations.
However, it’s important to note that the term engineering backlog has different meanings in different companies. Some agile organizations use the term to describe a backlog where the product owner breaks down epics or user stories into specific engineering tasks. (In this case, the team’s engineering backlog is essentially the product backlog.)
For other companies, the engineering backlog is a place to track and prioritize product ideas and suggestions. The engineering team itself may submit these. Still, other organizations use an engineering backlog as a dedicated document for maintaining a list of product bugs and defects that need fixing.
What’s Included on an Engineering Backlog?
As we pointed out above, an engineering backlog can have several definitions and uses, which vary by organization. But the typical items you will find on this type of backlog will include:
- New user stories
- Changes to existing user stories)
- Product bugs and defects
- Specific tasks (or blocks of time) to address technical debt in the product
- The initiatives for the engineering team to complete in the next sprint
- Engineers’ suggestions for improving the product
Dive Deeper:
Watch our backlog discussion with Atlassian
