Understand the different Backlog State strategies and what will work best for your team.
Now you’re ready to start setting up the Backlog by creating your Backlog Workflow States. For instructions on the actual setup check out the Backlog Page article. Let’s walk the recommended strategy for using the Backlog in Shortcut.
The best way to incorporate the into your process is to add a Backlog Workflow state or states to a current Workflow or Workflows.
Now that you have an idea of your overall strategy it’s time to plan out what your Backlog State or States will look like. There are many options, but they fall into two categories: one Backlog Workflow State or more than one Backlog Workflow State.
A single Backlog state sits alongside the existing flow, but tickets can move into it as decided. The Backlog is a place where well-formed tickets land.
More than one Backlog State: Backlog States make up a sub-flow similar to “started”, where work is expected to be done on them before they move on to Unstarted states.
If you decide on this strategy you don't have to use Draft, Ready for Refinement and Unplanned or even stick to this number of states. However, this is a good jumping off point for you to customize to meet your team's needs.
The goal of a Backlog is to create a place where ideas and unstarted work can live, but also to ensure this does not become a place where ideas are forgotten about and never worked on or thought of again. Both of these strategies can be used to create a well-functioning backlog, the key is to ensure that you have team alignment and an outlined process for backlog management and refinement.
One great way to create team alignment is to talk through your proposed options as a cross-functional (engineering & product) team and then vote! This is what we did at Shortcut and we found it helped get buy-in across the team.