Purpose
The backlog is a wish list of requests for features to be included in a product. The backlog is a fluid collection of stories that evolves over the course of the project as more is learned about the product and its customers.
The product owner is responsible for ordering the items on the backlog based on business value, feature importance, or other relevant criteria. When managing a backlog, items should be ordered such that the most important items occur at the top of the list and are ordered based on descending priority.
During the planning sessions, items are selected from the backlog based on factors such as priority, risk, value to the product or customer, and ability to deliver the feature within the given release.
At the end of each release, feedback on what was developed may result in new items being added to the backlog, changed priorities, or removed items. The backlog is developed at the beginning of an agile project, but it does not need to be complete at this time since it will continue to evolve throughout the project. The backlog is sometimes referred to as a portfolio of options that the business can invest in. Other terms used are master story list and prioritized feature list.
Elements Items in the Backlog The backlog can contain user stories, use cases, features, functional requirements, and quality attribute stories as well as items that have been added by the team to support development of the requirements such as technical infrastructure.
