backloglisted

# backlog — Everything known, in one order The **product backlog**: the whole of the known work in a single ordered list, with the reason for the order written down. It is groomed occasionally, not every iteration. **It is ordered, not prioritized** — and the distinction is the whole point. Scrum changed that word deliberately: ordering by priority is only one technique among several, and rarely the best one. A position reflects **value, risk, cost, and dependency together**, weighed against each other, which is precisely what a single priority label cannot express. So there is one list, every item has exactly one position, and that position is the only statement of sequence the document makes. No priority labels, no tiers, no parallel "critical" list — each of those is a second opinion that can contradict the first, and the moment two disagree the list stops being trusted and people fall back to asking someone. A total order is uncomfortable on purpose. It forces the comparison between two things you would rather call "both high", and that comparison is the entire value of the exercise. The `Why here` column is where it gets resolved: not "P1", but *why above the item below it*. It deliberately creates **no issues**. That is `sprint`'s job, and the separation matters: work becomes an issue at the moment someone commits to doing it, and everything before that moment is a plan that can still change cheaply. Ordering is the entire value. A list of everything that must be