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Software Engineering vocabulary · Agile and Team Workflow

Backlog

Meaning in software engineering, with examples

/ˈbæklɔːɡ/nounCore term

In software engineering, backlog means: The ordered list of work a team has not started yet, such as features, bugs and improvements, with the most important items at the top.

In Turkish: iş listesi, bekleyen işler listesi, ürün iş listesi

How it is used

Product owners add items to the backlog, prioritize it and clean it up in 'backlog refinement' sessions. 'Put it in the backlog' often means 'not now, maybe later'. Scrum separates the product backlog from the sprint backlog.

Example sentences

  1. Good idea, but it's not urgent. Let's add it to the backlog.

  2. We have over 300 tickets in the backlog, and half of them are out of date.

Common collocations

  • add to the backlog
  • product backlog
  • sprint backlog
  • backlog refinement
  • prioritize the backlog
  • ticketA record in a tracking tool such as Jira that describes one piece of work, like a bug, task or feature, and shows who owns it and its status.
  • sprintA fixed period, usually one or two weeks, in which a team commits to finishing a chosen set of work items.
  • user storyA short description of a feature from the user's point of view, often written as 'As a [type of user], I want [goal] so that [reason]'.
  • requirementSomething the software must do, or a condition it must meet, as agreed with users, clients or the product team.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Agile and Team Workflow

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