The Bugs That Shouldn’t Be in Your Bug Backlog
There is never enough time to fix all of our application’s bugs. Everything we don’t fix gets moved to the bug backlog, a list somewhere within our ticket tracking software. If a bug isn’t critical enough to be fixed straight away, it ends up in the backlog. If a bug report is ambiguous, missing vital information, or making odd requests, it ends up in the backlog. All of the bugs that no one wants to fix, but no one wants to be the one to close either, end up in the backlog.
Bug backlogs are never easy to work with, and their nature tends towards helping accumulate bug tickets rather than helping anyone resolve their contents. Many of the tickets that end up in the bug backlog are not worth fixing. They are not ready to start or are of dubious value. They need to be furnished with more information, triaged, closed, or moved to a more appropriate location. Keeping them as-is will ensure that they don’t get fixed, and will make it harder to address the real bugs in the backlog. If you’re a developer scrolling through the list, you will avoid these bugs; if you’re someone who has decided to take charge of the backlog, you should be dealing with these first. What follows is a list of the types of bugs that shouldn’t be “sitting” in your bug backlog.
