If you have an enormous backlog you may feel like you can never make a dent in the list, and even when you start making progress, new requests pile up quicker than you can organize the existing ones. There are several ways to remedy this situation but I will focus on the method that I have found to be the most effective.
Preparation
Before you begin to organize an enormous backlog, examine the source of recently-created items and work to minimize the creation of new items. If stakeholders create items, the issue may be as simple as unfamiliarity with the search mechanism, a poorly designed interface for the backlog, or there may be too many items in he backlog for the search mechanism to be useful. While you are organizing the backlog, you may want to ask them to check with you before opening a new item.
Acknowledge to the stakeholders and to yourself that the organization process may take several days.
Step 1: Identify critical issues
Scan the backlog for seriously critical items that were misprioritized. Look for items that are time sensitive or that need immediate attention. Fix the prioritization on the critical issues you find and organize resources to handle them. If you find any items like that, after the backlog is organized work with the stakeholders to ensure that you prioritize critical items correctly in the future.
Step 2: Divide
Pick a characteristic to temporarily filter a small number (10-20) of related issues. The characteristic can be anything. Some examples are: priority, date created, last responded, or a topic keyword. It doesn’t have to be related to the organization method you are eventually going to use for the backlog, it just needs to filter a workable number of items. It is far easier to deal with a small list of items than it is a large group.
Step 3: Organize based on actions
With each list of issues from Step 2, group issues that require the same action together. After all of the items in the list are assigned to an action group, filter by a different characteristic and repeat. For example, if an item requires further stakeholder input, link it in some fashion with the others that require further stakeholder input. Remember to focus on the action that is needed for the item itself, not the implementation of the item.
As you identify the action for each item in the list, take care of super quick actions, such as the following:
- Remove duplicates by closing or merging them.
- Move any items that are in the incorrect place.
- Fix obvious priority errors, typos, issue types, etc.
If you are not sure what the next step needs to be for an item, make an “I’m not sure” category and group all uncertain items together.
Step 4: Conquer
Now that all items on the backlog are grouped by action, filter by each action group and perform the necessary actions for each of them. Complete each list before moving onto the next one. Treat items based on their priority. For example, if an item will need stakeholder input but the description is sufficient to explain the request and the item is low priority, you don’t need to get detailed information from the stakeholder at this time. Just confirm the priority with the stakeholder and put it in the correct priority in the backlog.