| title | titleSuffix | description | ms.technology | ms.prod | ms.assetid | ms.manager | ms.author | author | ms.topic | ms.date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Create your backlog |
VSTS & TFS |
Add items, plan your project, order/prioritize, and estimate your backlog of deliverables in Visual Studio Team Services & Team Foundation Server |
devops-agile |
devops |
04df6b31-ef6c-4285-81a6-96768f03ecf4 |
douge |
kaelli |
KathrynEE |
quickstart |
03/20/2018 |
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Your product backlog corresponds to your project plan, the roadmap for what your team plans to deliver. Once defined, you have a prioritized list of features and requirements to build. Your backlog also provides a repository of all the information you need to track and share with your team.
Your backlog consists of a list of work items. You use work items to share information, assign work to team members, track dependencies, organize work, and more. Because the most important work appears at the top of the list, your team always knows what to work on next.
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From your web browser, open your product backlog from the Work hub, Backlogs page.
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::: moniker range=">= tfs-2013 <= tfs-2015"
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::: moniker range="vsts || >= tfs-2017 <= tfs-2018"
Tip
If you don't see the team or team project you want, click the 
icon to browse all team projects and teams.
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Begin building your backlog by entering a title and click Add. If you don't see the Add link, click New to open the quick add panel. Repeat this step until you've captured all your main ideas.
Tip
Your backlog shows work that you are planning to do or have started working on. As soon as the State of a work item is set to Done or Completed, the work item no longer shows up on your backlog. You can use the backlog controls to filter or change your view.
Note
Depending on the process chosen to create your team project—Agile, Scrum, or CMMI— the items in your backlog may be called product backlog items (PBIs), user stories, or requirements. All three are similar: they describe the customer value to be delivered and the work to be performed.
By default, PBIs and bugs appear on Scrum backlogs, user stories on Agile backlogs, and requirements on CMMI backlogs. Each team can choose how bugs show up on their backlogs and boards.
After you've got some items on your backlog, you can order them and create a prioritized list of work. Frequently reviewing and prioritizing your backlog can help your team know what's most important to deliver next.
Reorder your backlog by simply dragging work items. Or, if you prefer the keyboard, hold the Alt key and use the up and down arrows.
Tip
You can't sort your backlog on a column. If you want to view a sorted listed, click Create query, save and open the query, and then sort the query results. To learn more about queries, see Use the query editor to list and manage queries.
Getting your backlog built and prioritized provides the high level roadmap. However, before your team can actually start work on any item, they'll need more details. You capture these details within the work item form.
Tip
To plan a sprint, at a minimum you should estimate the effort involved to implement each backlog item. You capture effort in the following fields within the work item form: Effort (Scrum), Story Points (Agile), or Size (CMMI) fields.
Open each item (double-click, or press Enter to open the selected item) and add all the info you want to track. Enter as much detail as the team needs to understand the scope, estimate the work required, develop tests, and ensure that the end product meets acceptance criteria.
Now that you've got a working backlog in place, your team can begin work on the top priority items. From here, it's time to make the decision on how you want to work as a team: Scrum or Kanban? You can use these methods independently or together.
[!div class="nextstepaction"] Scrum: Schedule sprints or Kanban
Teams that want the least overhead in terms of tracking and estimating may prefer Kanban. Teams that like to work at a steady cadence and plot the details of their sprint plan may prefer Scrum and sprint planning.
Note
Depending on the process chosen to create your team project—Agile, Scrum, or CMMI— the items in your backlog may be called product backlog items (PBIs), user stories, or requirements. All three are similar: they describe the customer value to be delivered and the work to be performed.
By default, PBIs and bugs appear on Scrum backlogs, user stories on Agile backlogs, and requirements on CMMI backlogs. Each team can choose how they want to treat bugs: either as requirements or tasks.
[!div class="nextstepaction"] Kanban quickstart
- Groom your backlog
- Product backlog controls
- Filter product and portfolio backlogs
- Backlog priority or stack rank order
- Backlog keyboard shortcuts
If you've already defined a long list of items, you don't have to reenter them one at a time. Instead, use Microsoft Excel to quickly import them to your backlog.
Note
Your product backlog is one of three classes of backlogs available to you. For an overview of the features supported on each backlog and the two types of boards, see Backlogs, boards, and plans.
You have a choice as to how you want to manage bugs. Some teams like to track bugs along with requirements on the backlog. Other teams like to track bugs as tasks performed in support of a requirement, and have them appear on their task board.
If you're using the Scrum process, your default setup is to track bugs along with PBIs. However, if you're working in a team project based on the Agile or CMMI processes, bugs don't automatically appear on your backlog.
Talk with your team to determine how they want to manage bugs and then change your team settings accordingly.