The Backlog Black Hole and the way out of it with OpenProject
Almost every agile team reaches a point where the product backlog - once a source of clarity and direction - starts to feel more like a burden. And that’s not a reflection of the team’s capability. It happens to the best of them. As products grow, so does the complexity of managing competing priorities and shifting goals, all while keeping the team focused on the work that delivers the highest value.
The deeper frustration is that most project management tools don’t make this any easier. They’re great at capturing work, but offer little guidance on how to actually structure it - leaving teams to invent their own systems, resulting in inconsistent tagging, vague ticket titles, and refinement sessions that go in circles. Priorities can easily get lost in the long list of backlog items, focus can quickly drift and clarity can become blurred. Teams deserve better than that.
That’s exactly where OpenProject steps in. With Backlog buckets, OpenProject gives teams a built-in way to organize their backlog into meaningful categories - separating the urgent from the exploratory, the well-defined from the still-fuzzy - making prioritization conversations easier, planning more predictable, and the path forward clearer for everyone.
These buckets do not only help with alignment, they also improve your team’s productivity. Rather than going back to the drawing board or restarting the refinement process, you can quickly move items from one bucket to another as priorities evolve. Nothing is disrupted, your work is simply realigned.
How to make the most of Backlog buckets
Think of Backlog buckets as boxes in which you can group related work packages. You can create as many buckets as needed by your team needs. We are happy to share with you some ideas on how you can use the Backlog buckets with your team.
Consejo
These buckets can follow a thematic naming order, aligned with your product development process.
- 🏗️ Ready for development: Fully refined, estimated, and prioritized items that have everything a developer needs to pick up and start building.
- 🍒 Low hanging fruits: Small, well-defined tasks that can be picked up quickly with minimal effort and deliver immediate value.
- 🔭 Discovery needed: Items that are too vague or uncertain to act on and need research, clarification, or a spike before they can move forward.
- 🎨 Designs needed: Functionality that is understood and prioritized but is waiting on UI/UX design before development can begin.
- 💡 Future ideas: Interesting concepts and requests that aren’t a current priority but are worth keeping visible for later consideration.
Consejo
You can also use Backlog buckets to organize a triage for your bugs.
- 🔥 Critical bugs: Production is broken, data loss risk, or security vulnerability. Needs immediate attention - drop everything.
- ⛔ High prio bugs: Core functionality is impaired for a significant number of users. No acceptable workaround exists. Next sprint priority.
- ⚠️ Medium prio bugs: Functionality is affected but a workaround exists, or the impact is limited to edge cases or a small user group. Plan into upcoming sprints.
- 🐛 Low prio bugs: Minor UX issues, cosmetic defects, or rarely triggered edge cases. Low user impact. Schedule when capacity allows.
- 🔍 Needs investigation bugs: Not enough information to triage yet. Requires reproduction, clarification from the reporter, or a technical spike before it can be prioritized.
- 📦 Deferred bugs: Known issue, but not planned for the foreseeable future. Kept for visibility but out of active planning.
Consejo
For bigger teams working in sub-teams within one backlog you can also think about dividing the backlog into team spaces.
- 🖥️ Frontend - UI components and everything users see and interact with directly in the product.
- ⚙️ Backend - APIs, data models, and the core functionality that powers the product under the hood.
- 📱 Mobile - Anything related to the mobile app.
- 🚀 DevOps - Infrastructure, deployment pipelines, monitoring, and everything that keeps the product running reliably in production.
- 🎨 Design - UX research, wireframes and prototypes needed before development can begin.
- 📊 Product Management - Open product questions, discovery tasks, and strategic initiatives that shape the product direction.
If your organization uses frameworks such as SAFe, you can use Backlog buckets to prioritize topics for certain PIs.
-
PI #1 (01/01/2027 - 31/03/2027) - Items committed and prioritized for delivery within this Program Increment, agreed upon during PI planning.
-
PI #2 (01/04/2027 - 30/06/2027) - Items tentatively scoped for the next Program Increment, visible for early alignment and preparation.
In case you prioritize your topics in a quarterly roadmap, you can create Backlog buckets for the upcoming quarters.
- Q3 2026 - Items committed and prioritized for delivery this quarter, actively being refined and prepared for development.
- Q4 2026 - Items scoped for the next quarter, visible for early alignment and preparation ahead of planning.
- Q1 2027 - Early-stage ideas and initiatives tentatively mapped to the future, subject to change as priorities evolve.
Importante
These categorization methods are just ideas and should work only as an inspiration. We strongly encourage you to choose any style that best suits the way your team works.
Further improvements on the roadmap
We are continuously working on improving your experience within Backlog buckets. Want to influence what’s coming next? All roadmap items below link to their corresponding OpenProject work package in our public roadmap, where you can follow progress, subscribe to updates, and share feedback.
Here are some updates which you can expect:
Filter-based Backlog buckets
In addition to the already available manual Backlog buckets, we are planning to introduce Smart Backlog buckets. When creating a bucket, you’ll be able to define a set of filters - by type, priority, status, assignee, or any other attribute that matters to your team. OpenProject will then automatically fill the bucket with all matching work packages and keep it continuously in sync as your backlog grows and changes. New item added that fits your criteria? It lands in the right bucket straight away, no manual sorting needed. The result is a backlog that organizes itself - so your team can spend less time tidying up and more time actually delivering.
Bulk edit of Backlog buckets
Do you want to quickly select multiple work packages and add them to the same bucket with only a few clicks? We will allow this soon with the new bulk edit functionality for buckets
Backlog buckets in work package lists
If you’re already using work package lists as part of your daily workflow, you’ll love what’s coming next. OpenProject is including backlog buckets into work package lists - meaning you’ll soon be able to filter your list to show only items from a specific bucket, display the assigned bucket as a dedicated column, and even group or order your entire list by buckets.
Focus on what matters within your Backlog
Would you like to focus on only certain Backlog buckets during a backlog refinement session? No problem. We will allow you to decide which buckets should be visible on your screen, so that you can fully focus on what matters to you.
Prioritize Backlog buckets
Some buckets matter more than others, right? No problem. We will allow you to quickly reorder your Backlog buckets so that they mirror your priorities.
Try it out yourself and let us know what you think
Still unsure whether Backlog buckets are right for you? Now is the perfect time to give them a try and let us know what you think. If you have additional feedback or ideas, feel free to comment on the linked work packages.
