#NoBacklog
A backlog is a collection of work items that you do not have the capacity to build. (If you did have the capacity, you'd just build them.) It's a black hole where work goes to die. The only way to alleviate that logjam is to increase capacity, either by adding people (usually doesn't work) or by improving how you do the work (most companies won't). Consequently, the backlog always grows over time, filling with work that will never be done.
AI might fall under the "improve" category, but in practice, it doesn't seem to. My theory is that this is Parkinson's Law in action—work expands to fill all available capacity. If you add AI to the mix, the backlog grows faster than the amount of work removed. I've also seen people use AI for work not specified on the backlog at all—they just get carried away by the "productivity," adding unspecified feature after unspecified feature as they work. If you define "productivity" as removing backlog items, the AI gets you nowhere.
My solution is to get rid of the backlog altogether. Just throw it out. All of it. Now. If it's important, it will come back.
Then breathe a sigh of relief.
Then create, not a backlog, but a fixed-size input queue for Engineering. The size is just large enough so that, when you need something to do, there's something to do. A couple of weeks' work is plenty. Then chisel that size onto stone tablets and guard it zealously. Nothing goes on unless something comes off. Period. (This is called a work-in-progress, or WIP, limit.)
Nobody, not even the CEO, can violate the size limit. If some piece of do-it-last-week-or-the-sky-will-fall work comes along, you need to remove a queue item to make space. A discussion with whoever inserted that item will ensue. That's a good thing. The queue must hold the most valuable (to users/customers) work, and if everything is "most valuable," nothing is. The size limit doesn't guarantee high value, but it makes CEO-inserted low-value work very visible. It also helps to put a timeout on items. If it's not done in a month, it's automatically discarded.
It's certainly Lean thinking. (WIP limits, ready queues, etc., were in use at Toyota long before Kanban was a gleam in Anderson's eye.) A good book on Lean (or Kanban) will help you find arguments. I like the Poppendiecks' "Implementing Lean Software Development" [https://amzn.to/4wFEGlY], and Goldratt's "The Goal" [https://amzn.to/4flBLrR].
Love this. I’m more of Kanban person, so WIP Limits resonate. I’ve seen them help teams blow the lid off their ability to focus and deliver value. The Backlog Limit was a hard one to get teams to consider. People love hoarding things to do almost as much as they love “multitasking”. I’m a “Nuke and Pave” guy. If it’s important, it comes back around.
In fact, I’ve proven this so many times it’s crazy. I’ll go in and nuke anything over 30 days old and see who notices. I think in the history of doing this, I can’t recall a single one. Not a single one. No one seems to really remember that stuff if you drop it.