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title Create and manage your product backlog
titleSuffix Azure Boards
description Create and prioritize your product backlog in Azure Boards. Add work items, estimate effort, and organize requirements to guide your team's development work.
ms.custom boards-backlogs, copilot-scenario-highlight
ms.service azure-devops-boards
ms.assetid 04df6b31-ef6c-4285-81a6-96768f03ecf4
ai-usage ai-assisted
ms.author chcomley
author chcomley
ms.topic how-to
monikerRange <= azure-devops
ms.date 02/28/2026

Create and manage your backlog

[!INCLUDE version-lt-eq-azure-devops]

The product backlog is your project plan, which shows what your team intends to deliver. It contains user stories, backlog items, or requirements that you add to it. Your backlog is a flat list of work items, as the following image illustrates, which shows a Scrum process for Azure Boards. For the Agile, Basic, and Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) process models, the Backlog items selection appears as Stories, Issues, and Requirements.

Your product backlog is one of three classes of backlogs available to you: backlogs, boards, and plans.

:::image type="content" source="media/create-backlog/intro-image.png" alt-text="Screenshot of a Backlog of Scrum process product backlog items.":::

[!INCLUDE link other articles]

Prerequisites

[!INCLUDE prerequisites]

::: moniker range="azure-devops" [!INCLUDE ai-assistance-mcp-server-tip] ::: moniker-end

Backlog and sprint work item filtering

Your product Backlog, Board, and sprint backlogs display work items based on the following criteria:

Process Work Item Type Backlog Name
Basic Issue Issues
Agile User Story Stories
Scrum Product Backlog Item Backlog items
CMMI Requirement Requirements

More filtering criteria:

  • Area Path matches one of your team's selected Area Paths
  • Iteration Path is under your team's Default Iteration Path

[!INCLUDE temp]

Sprint backlogs and Taskboards apply these same filters plus the selected Iteration Path. You can only select Iteration Paths preselected by your team. Sprint backlogs display only work items assigned to the selected sprint—child tasks assigned to other sprints aren't displayed.

[!div class="mx-imgBorder"] Screenshot of Product backlog level, Backlog items, Stories, or Requirements.

For more information, see Define area paths and assign to a team and Define sprint paths and configure team iterations.

Add a backlog

Every project includes a default team with backlogs. To support more teams, see Create or add a team.

Each process defines the following specific backlog levels:

  • Agile: Stories, Features, and Epics
  • Basic: Issues and Epics
  • Scrum: Backlog items, Features, and Epics
  • CMMI: Requirements, Features, and Epics

::: moniker range="<=azure-devops"

To customize your backlog, see Inherited process model or On-premises XML process model. ::: moniker-end

Open your backlog

From your web browser, follow these steps to open your product backlog.

  1. Sign in to your project (https://dev.azure.com/{Your_Organization}/{Your_Project}).

  2. Select Boards > Backlogs.

    :::image type="content" source="media/create-backlog/open-backlogs.png" alt-text="Screenshot of sequence selection for opening Backlogs in Boards.":::

    To select a different backlog, choose a different team or select the View Backlog directory option. You can also enter a keyword in the search box to filter the team backlogs for the project.

    :::image type="content" source="media/create-backlog/backlog-team-selector.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing team selection dropdown menu.":::

    [!TIP] Choose the :::image type="icon" source="../../media/icons/icon-favorite-star.png" border="false"::: star icon to favorite a team backlog. Favorited artifacts (:::image type="icon" source="../../media/icons/icon-favorited.png" border="false"::: favorited icon) appear at the top of the team selector list.

  3. Check that you selected Stories (for Agile), Issues (for Basic), Backlog items (for Scrum), or Requirements (for CMMI) as the backlog level.

    :::image type="content" source="media/create-backlog/backlog-selector.png" alt-text="Screenshot shows the option to Choose backlog level.":::

  4. (Optional) To select which columns display and in what order, select the :::image type="icon" source="../../media/icons/actions-icon.png" border="false"::: actions icon and Column options. For more information, see Change column options.

    :::image type="content" source="media/create-backlog/open-column-options.png" alt-text="Screenshot showing Column Options button selection.":::

[!INCLUDE tip backlog view]

Track bugs on your backlog

Some teams track bugs along with requirements on the backlog. Other teams track bugs as tasks completed in support of a requirement, so bugs appear on their Taskboard. Before you determine how to manage bugs, see Bugs as requirements or tasks and Show bugs on backlogs and boards.

Convert ideas into backlog items

Your backlog shows work that you plan to do or that's in progress. As soon as the State of a work item is set to Done or Completed, the work item doesn't appear on your backlog. You can use the backlog controls to filter or change your view.

If you already defined a long list of items, you don't need to reenter them one at a time. Instead, use bulk work items with CSV files or Microsoft Excel to import them to your backlog.

  1. Before you add work items, select :::image type="icon" source="../../media/icons/view-options-icon.png" border="false"::: View options and turn the slider for Parents and Forecasting to Off. Optionally, turn In Progress Items on or off.

    :::image type="content" source="media/create-backlog/view-options-parents-off.png" alt-text="Screenshot of view options parents turned off.":::

  2. To add a work item, select :::image type="icon" source="../../media/icons/blue-add-icon.png" border="false":::New Work Item and enter a title. Select Enter or select Add to top. The default Area Path and Iteration Path selected for the team are assigned to work items. For more information, see Manage and configure team tools.

    :::image type="content" source="media/create-backlog/add-new-items-agile.png" alt-text="Screenshot of work item added by using New Work Item.":::

    [!NOTE]
    If you have Stakeholder access, you can only add work items to the bottom of the backlog. For more information, see Stakeholder access quick reference.

Depending on whether you create your project with Basic, Agile, Scrum, or CMMI, the items in your backlog might be called issues, user stories, PBIs, or requirements. All of these terms describe the customer value to be delivered and the work to be performed.

By default, user stories appear on Agile backlogs, issues on Basic backlogs, PBIs and bugs appear on Scrum backlogs, and requirements appear on CMMI backlogs.

Reorder your backlog

Reorder your items to create a prioritized list of work. Review and prioritize your backlog frequently to help your team know what's most important to deliver next.

You can't sort your backlog on a column. To view a sorted list, select Create query. Save and open the query, and sort the query results. For more information about queries, see Use the query editor to list and manage queries.

To reorder your backlog, drag the work items. Or, if you prefer to use the keyboard, hold down the Alt key and use the up and down arrows.

:::image type="content" source="media/create-backlog/cyb-order-backlog.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Reordered work items in the backlog.":::

Note

To reorder a backlog, have at least Basic access. If you have Stakeholder access, you can't reorder backlog items. For more information, see Stakeholder access quick reference.

Backlogs that participate in portfolio management or that contain nested same-type child items might not allow you to reorder the items. For more information, see the following articles:

Add details and estimates to backlog items

Add detailed information to each backlog item. This information helps your team estimate effort and deliver successfully.

To edit a work item:

  1. Double-click the item or select Enter to open the work item form.
  2. Add descriptions, field values, or discussion notes.
  3. Use the :::image type="icon" source="../media/icons/icon-attachments-tab-wi.png" border="false"::: Attachments tab to share supporting files.

Provide enough detail for your team to understand scope, estimate work, create tests, and deliver the expected outcome.

[!INCLUDE note user assigned]

Agile process

For example, assign the story to Raisa Pokrovskaya and add a discussion note that at-mentions Raisa.

:::image type="content" source="../get-started/media/plan-track-work/user-story-form-add-details.png" alt-text="Screenshot of User Story work item form, add details.":::

Select Save & Close when you're done.

Basic process

For example, assign the issue to Raisa Pokrovskaya and add a discussion note that at-mentions Raisa.

:::image type="content" source="../get-started/media/track-issues/issue-form-add-details.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Issues work item form, add details.":::

Select Save & Close when you're done.

Scrum process

For example, assign the product backlog item to Christie Church and set an Effort level of 8.

:::image type="content" source="media/create-backlog/pbi-form.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Product Backlog Item form.":::

Select Save & Close when you're done.

CMMI process

For example, assign the product backlog item to Jamal Hartnett and set Size to 8.

:::image type="content" source="../work-items/guidance/media/cmmi-requirement-form.png" alt-text="Screenshot of Requirements work item form.":::

Select Save & Close when you're done.

Key fields for backlog planning

Use these essential fields to estimate effort and define requirements for sprint planning:

Field Purpose
Effort, Story Points, Size Estimate work required - Use relative sizing (powers of 2, Fibonacci sequence, or your team's preferred scale). These estimates calculate velocity and forecast sprints.
Business Value Set priority - Assign relative value compared to other items. Higher numbers indicate greater business value.
Description Define scope - Provide clear details about user needs and requirements. Focus on what users want to accomplish and why.
Acceptance Criteria Define "Done" - Describe specific criteria for completion. Establish shared understanding between team and customers for acceptance testing.
Impact Assessment Assess risk (CMMI only) - Document customer impact of not implementing the requirement.

Show or hide In Progress items

Use the View options selector to toggle In Progress Items visibility. When turned off, items in Active, Committed, or Resolved states (or states that map to the In Progress category state) don't appear in the backlog.

:::image type="content" source="media/create-backlog/in-progress-control-2020.png" alt-text="Screenshot shows the View options selector with In progress selected.":::

Hide in progress items when forecasting work.

Show or hide work items in Completed state

Use the View options selector to toggle Completed Child items visibility based on your needs.

:::image type="content" source="media/create-backlog/completed-child-items-control-2020.png" alt-text="Screenshot shows the View options selector with Completed child items selected.":::

Show completed child items to view rollup columns.
Hide completed child items when forecasting work.

[!INCLUDE temp]

Review checklist for work items, backlogs, and boards

If you don't see the work items you expect on your product Backlog or board, complete the following checks:

  1. Make sure you selected the team backlog or board of interest. To learn how, see Use breadcrumbs and selectors to go to and open artifacts.

  2. Create a query of your backlog items, specifying the work item types that belong to your Requirements category and the Area Path associated with your team, for example:

    [!div class="mx-imgBorder"] Screenshot shows Requirement category query.

  3. Add the State, Area Path, and Iteration Path fields to the column options.

  4. Check the query results and that the values of the work items you expect to show up on your backlog meet these criteria:

    • Area Path belongs to your team's area path(s)
    • Iteration Path belongs under your team's default iteration path
    • State isn't Closed, Completed, Done, or Removed.

Note

You can also filter your product backlog to show or hide work items that are in an In Progress state category, corresponding to an Active, Resolved, Committed, Doing workflow state.

Other factors that affect work items in your backlogs and boards

The following settings influence the type and number of work items that appear in your backlogs and boards.

  • In your board, newly added work items don't appear if they're stack ranked lower within the product backlog. By choosing Show more items, you can cause the board to refresh and display more work items.

    [!div class="mx-imgBorder"]
    Screenshot shows Boards, Show more items.

  • If you turn off the In Progress view, work items where work has started don't appear in the backlog list.

    ::: moniker range="<=azure-devops"

    [!div class="mx-imgBorder"]
    Screenshot shows Backlogs, View Options, Hide In Progress sequence.
    ::: moniker-end

  • Work items appear in the priority order in which you add or move them. You manage this order or sequence by the Stack Rank (Basic, Agile, and CMMI processes) or Backlog Priority (Scrum) field. For more information, see the Stack rank section in Backlogs, portfolios, and Agile project management.

  • Each backlog displays up to 999 work items. If your backlog exceeds this limit, consider adding a team and moving some of the work items to the other team's backlog.

  • Sprint backlogs show only those work items that meet the team's area path and the Iteration Path defined for the sprint.

  • Inheritance process model: If an administrator disables or deletes a work item type, it doesn't appear on backlogs and boards.

  • On-premises XML process model: If an administrator deletes or destroys a work item type, it doesn't appear on backlogs and boards.

::: moniker range="azure-devops"

Use AI to manage your backlog

If you configure the Azure DevOps MCP Server, you can use AI assistants to manage your backlog by using natural language prompts.

Example prompts for backlog management

Task Example prompt
Get backlog items Get list of work items for <Stories> backlog in <Contoso> project
View my work items Get my work items for project <Contoso>
Create work items Create a new user story in <Contoso> project with title '<Add search functionality>'
Update work items Update work item <1234> with Story Points = <5> and State = <Active>
Prioritize backlog Get all work items in the product backlog for <Contoso> and prioritize them for a <two-week> sprint with <three> developers
Triage work List work items for <Stories> backlog, find all security-related bugs, and assign the first <4> to the current iteration
Find backlog gaps List features in <Contoso> that have no child user stories
Estimate effort Show all user stories in <Contoso> project that are active but have no story points assigned
Backlog health check List all work items in <Contoso> backlog that have been in the New state for more than 30 days
Split large items Show user stories in <Contoso> with story points greater than 13 that are still in the New state
Balance workload Show the count of active backlog items per team member in area path <Contoso\\Frontend>
Track dependencies List user stories in <Contoso> that have predecessor links to items that aren't yet completed

Tip

If you're using Visual Studio Code, agent mode is especially helpful for troubleshooting complex backlog scenarios.

  • To avoid using stale or cached data from previous queries, add to your prompt, "Do not use previously fetched data."

::: moniker-end

Next step

With your backlog in place, your team can begin work on the top-priority items. Now it's time to decide how you want to work as a team. Choose your team's workflow: Scrum for structured sprints or Kanban for continuous flow. You can use these methods independently or together.

[!div class="nextstepaction"] Scrum: Schedule sprints or Kanban

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