backlogitem

Backlog item is a term used in agile software development to denote a single element in the product backlog. It represents work that will deliver value to the product, such as a user-facing feature, a bug fix, a technical improvement, or other task. Each item has a title, a description, and may include acceptance criteria, an estimate, priority, and metadata such as dependencies, risk, and linkage to an epic or release.

Items are created by the product owner or stakeholders and refined through backlog grooming. During refinement, the item is clarified, split if large, and estimated. Items are prioritized to reflect value and urgency. For planning, teams pull items that are ready to a sprint, based on a Definition of Ready and sufficient detail to implement and test.

In practice, backlog items live in a tracker and move through states such as draft, ready, in progress, and done. They are considered complete when the work satisfies its acceptance criteria and the increment is releasable. Backlog items are central to iterative development, enabling prioritization, cross-functional collaboration, and visibility into upcoming work across releases.