Backlog

Some of the artifacts in each class will represent approved, agreed-upon, active, or completed tasks.

Others will represent proposed tasks, work approved but not scheduled, etc. These artifacts comprise the backlog. A backlog is a natural and healthy part of the development process as long as it is managed correctly. One of the themes of this discussion will be to indicate when and how to address items in the backlog.

Here are some of the categories of the backlog.

Requirements that are published but not represented in specifications and/or test plans are in the design backlog.

Specifications that are not implemented are in the engineering backlog.

Implementation artifacts that have not been tested are in the test backlog.

Test plans and automation that have not been executed are also in the test backlog.

Test results that have not been reviewed are in the results backlog.

Customer reports that have not been triaged are in the support backlog.

Customer reports that have been triaged as defects but have not been fixed are in the engineering backlog.

Defects that have been fixed but where the fixes have not been delivered to customers are in the release backlog.

These are the most important components of the backlog.