The Agile Daily Standup - AgileDad Most Backlog Management Is Just Organized Procrastination
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Nov 25, 2025 Explore the idea that backlog management often leads to organized procrastination rather than effective control. Dive into the concept of backlog rot and its impact on team focus. Discover how prioritization can become a misleading theater, cluttered with irrelevant items. Learn about signal decay as old tasks lose their importance, creating clutter. The discussion offers fresh insights into treating backlogs as options, not obligations, urging teams to prioritize actionable items and cut down on cognitive load.
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Backlogs Create Illusion Of Control
- Backlogs often give the illusion of control while actually storing indecision and speculation.
- Lee Henson argues most backlog management is organized procrastination, not strategy.
Backlog Rot Eats Team Focus
- Long-lived backlog items accumulate cognitive load and drain team focus.
- Henson calls this 'backlog rot' and warns refrigerating ideas eventually leads to decay.
Prioritization Theater Wastes Energy
- Prioritization theater ranks unknowns deep in a backlog that will likely never be built.
- Henson says debating order of distant maybes wastes decision energy and creates false progress.